High School Heroes
by whoperhero
Summary: Hey, I'm Laura, everyone's favorite daughter of Loki. My friends and I have finally become official heroes. Unfortunately, this means official villains want to fight us. And I thought math class was bad!
1. Pranks, Planetary Wars, and Other Si

**Pranks, Planetary Wars, and Other Signs it's a Monday**

 **AN: Hey, so this is technically a sequel to the story** _ **Stark High**_ **, but you don't have to read that to understand this story. I will explain what has happened in the first two or three chapters, so hopefully it won't be too confusing. Enjoy!**

"Are you sure we should be doing this?" Anne asks. "I mean, won't we get detention if we're caught?"

"That's why we won't get caught," I reply, pushing a strand of my straight, black hair out of my eyes so I can see what I'm working on. The bucket is now almost full of silly string. All that remains is to balance it above the door to Mr. Huntsman's math class. A quick teleport up should leave it all set to spill on Liberty… or on me.

"Hey Anne, do you think I can teleport this silly string up to the doorframe without spilling it on myself?"

Anne pauses to think for a moment. "I'm not sure," she says, finally. "I haven't been paying as much attention to your power training as I should have. I'm sorry."

"That's ok, it's water under the bridge," I reply." Really, I'm just glad my best friend wants to hang out with me again. "I'm going to go with no, I shouldn't teleport up," I say, getting back to the pranking at hand. "I could probably do it, but I really don't want to ruin this awesome shirt," I say, gesturing to my blue, Ravenclaw t-shirt. It's both my favorite house in Hogwarts and my second favorite color. Black is my first favorite color, which is why I'm wearing black jeans and black-and-white shoes.

"Well, now that we've figured out I'm not teleporting up there, I guess we need to figure out how we will get it up there." I sigh. "I wish we had a ladder."

"I know where we can get one!" Anne exclaims.

I raise an eyebrow. "Really?"

"Yeah!" Anne replies. "I saw the janitor using a ladder to change a lightbulb last week. His supply closet is right over there," Anne says, pointing down the hall.

I grin. "Make a prankster out of you yet, I will, my Padawan," I tease, doing a poor impression of Yoda. In all seriousness though, Anne is a great friend. Most people would be horrified to discover their best friend is secretly Green Girl, the daughter of Bruce Banner/The Hulk. However, I'm not most people. I recently discovered I'm the daughter of Loki, and when the Avengers found out, they were less than thrilled. They just assumed that, because I have the same powers as Loki, I would be evil like him as well, but that's totally not true! Eventually, they realized the truth, that I'm not evil, I just like pulling some harmless pranks from time to time. Well, mostly harmless…

RIIIIIIIIIIING!

"Hurry up, Laura!" Anne exclaims from her hiding place, as the end-of-class bell rings. The bucket now in place, I hurry up and teleport the ladder back to the janitor's closet, then I teleport myself to our hiding place in the currently empty classroom across the hall to see what will happen.

Sure enough, mere seconds after the bell rings, Liberty quickly opens the door to the classroom, her straight, blond hair swooshing against her red-and-white plaid shirt in her rush to hurry onwards to her next class. Then, the bucket tips, and her shirt becomes silly-string colored!

For a moment, Liberty just stands there in shock. Then she screams "LAURA!"

"Liberty?" I gasp, pretending to be surprised by her messy appearance as I walk towards her.

"I KNOW YOU DID THIS!" she yells.

"Who, me?" I ask, trying to look innocent, but I end up laughing instead. Liberty's glare is a bit frightening, but totally worth it! Liberty Rogers, daughter of Captain America and Black Widow, is the obnoxious leader of the superhero team Anne and I are part of. Liberty tries to be perfect at everything, and is constantly criticizing everyone who puts in less effort than she does. That's why I've decided to make her the first victim of my prank war.

"Liberty?" a booming voice asks from inside the classroom. Seconds later, Sam comes running out and gasps! "WHO DID THIS TO MY LIBS?!" he bellows.

My Libs. Ugh. Apparently, they're dating again. Liberty and Sam have been dating on-again off-again since their first date at the Homecoming dance a few weeks ago. And when I say on-again, off-again, I mean that practically every day they're either breaking up or making up. It's so annoying to have to deal with them, especially since they're both on my superhero team. Samuel (Shocker) Thorson is, as his last name would suggest, the son of Thor, and also, annoyingly, my cousin. The reason he being my cousin is so annoying is because we're nothing alike. He's the quarterback of our high school football team who hates reading, a stereotypical dumb jock. I, on the other hand, am a nerd, and proud of it!

Sam then notices me. "LAURA!" He yells. "IF THIS IS YOU STARTING THAT PRANK WAR YOU KEEP TALKING ABOUT, I'M GOING TO PRANK YOU SO HARD THAT…"

I stop paying attention to Sam when another guy walks out of the classroom. Joe's brown hair swooshes around his face, he opens his nice, kissable mouth, and says "What the hell, Laura?!"

I can't help flinching, even though I know his anger is just pretend. The story that we told everyone is that we broke up after the Homecoming dance, but really, Joe is still my same, gorgeous boyfriend. I would love to be able to shout that Joe is my boyfriend at the top of my lungs, but right now I can't, for fear of our parents. Our dads don't exactly see eye-to-eye. My dad, Loki, once hypnotized Joe's dad, Hawkeye, into killing innocent people. Now, my dad doesn't want me dating "the offspring of that pathetic mortal", and to say Joe's dad would be furious to find out his son is dating me would be an understatement. That's why no one can know about our relationship but us.

Joe shakes his head. "C'mon Laura, that's not nice. Although… it is funny…."

"What did you say?!" Liberty huffs.

Joe shrugs. "How 'bout, instead of getting angry, you get even? You know, prank them back? I could help with that…." Joe suggests, locking eyes with me and grinning in a way that says _You're on!_

"You know what? I just might!" Liberty exclaims. Then she frowns. "Wait a minute, 'them'?"

"Anne's in on it too. She's watching us from that empty classroom." Everyone turns to look at Anne, whose eyes get an _Oh shit!_ look to them, then back at Joe. Joe grins. "Told you I have Spy Senses."

"Anne!" Liberty exclaims, to which Anne quickly replies "It was Laura's idea."

"Gee Anne, way to throw me under the bus," I grumble.

"Well then, you can expect a whopper of a prank soon!" Liberty exclaims.

"From all three of us!" Sam yells.

"So keep on your toes," Joe finishes, his gaze showing the tiniest bit of a flirt, before it turns back to fake anger. The three of them then walk away to their next classes, Liberty grumbling about how much time she'll have to spend to get the silly string off. Anne starts to walk away to her next class too, but I stop her.

"What?" Anne asks.

"This prank war isn't over, not by a long shot! I'm going to try to get Noah to join our side, then maybe we can work out some new pranks over lunch."

"Or you could just let it go," Anne replies.

"Let it go?!" I reply incredulously. "No way! This is fun! Now, are you with me, or not?"

Anne hesitates a moment, before saying "Well… it is fun…."

"Great!" I exclaim. "See you later, pranker!" then head off to class.

As I take my seat, however, I realize that convincing Noah to join our pranking cause might not be so easy. For starters, I've barely talked to the guy since Homecoming, other than to say thank you for saving my life. It's not that I'm mad at him or anything. He seems like a nice enough guy when he's not too sleepy. I'm just not sure what to say to him. It seems like we have nothing in common, other than fighting crime, that is. Still, it can't hurt to try.

"Hey, Noah," I say, trying to hurry up and get him to join our side before Joe gets to class.

"What?" he asks, sounding tired as usual.

"Would you like to join Anne and I in pranking Liberty, Sam, and Joe? We're totally going to win, but only with your help."

Noah sighs. "Sorry, I have too many things to do."

"Oh, ok," I reply, disappointed, but more or less expecting that answer.

"Hey, thanks for offering though," Noah says, surprising me. "Some other time."

"Sure thing," I reply, smiling.

"'Sure thing' what?" Joe asks, sliding into the seat next to me.

"Nothing!" I exclaim, pretending to be angry.

"This wouldn't be about a certain prank war, would it?" Joe asks, looking back and forth between Noah and I suspiciously.

"Maybe, maybe not," I reply, trying to psych Joe out. Joe then turns to look at Noah, who is suddenly wearing a very good poker face, which causes Joe to look even more suspicious. Joe scrutinizes us for quite some time before he looks away, and when he finally does, Noah surprises me by giving me a wink. I guess he does want to help me win the prank war, he just doesn't have time.

I'm not entirely sure what's going on with Noah, but I can tell he's having some sort of trouble. Ever since I've met him, he's always been falling asleep in class. At first, Joe and I just figured he's lazy, and used to joke that he's a vampire, but now I'm not so sure. I found out that he works a lot, like, a lot, a lot. More than a typical high school student who's just working for a little spending money. I thought things would get better now that he's doing an internship with Stark Industries, but if anything, he seems to be more tired. I hope whatever trouble he's facing goes away soon. The fact that neither of Noah's parents are superheroes, yet he managed to build a fully-functioning Iron Man suit is pretty impressive. I want to see him become a successful superhero.

I also wish I could think of something to say to him. Come on, we must have something else in common besides being superheroes! Fortunately, I am saved from an awkward silence by the school secretary entering the classroom. "Laura Lakes, Joe Barton, and Noah Bolton?" The secretary calls. The three of us raise our hands. "Oh! You three are right in a row! Well, that makes it easier," the secretary chuckles. "I just got three phone calls excusing you from school. They're from an Uncle Fury, Aunt Hill, and Grandpa Coulson. If you could come to the office, I'll sign each of you out with your respective guardian."

The three of us exchange a quick worried look before following the secretary to the office. After me and my teammates defeated Ultron at our Homecoming dance, the media went crazy talking about us "High School Heroes" and how impressive we are, which made us worry that more supervillains would hear about us and try to fight us. That's when S.H.I.E.L.D. stepped in. They promised to look out for us and our non-superhero family members, but in return, we would be on-call for any really big battles that we might need to assist the Avengers with. If the leaders of S.H.I.E.L.D. are calling us out of school, that can't be good!

Nervously, I step into the office, where I am greeted with an awkward sight. Instead of wearing what they usually do, Director Fury is looking casual in jeans and a t-shirt, Maria Hill is also wearing jeans and a casual shirt, and Coulson… is wearing tan pants, a sweater vest, and fake grey hair?! Like, OH MY GOSH! I have to stop myself from laughing at how epic fail they are at pretending to be our normal relatives.

I don't feel like laughing anymore though once we are in the car. "WHAT?!" I yell, unable to believe what I am hearing. My teammates, including Liberty, Anne, and Sam, who were escorted out of school by three other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, are shocked as well.

"You heard me right," Director Fury replies grimly. "These so-called 'Frost Giants' are trying to take over our planet, and your parents," he says, pointedly not looking at me "could use some help."

And here I thought math class would be the worst thing I'd have to face today. Did I mention I hate Mondays?!

 **To be continued…**

 **Merry Christmas to people who celebrate it!**


	2. An Unexpected Snowstorm

**An Unexpected Snowstorm**

In hindsight, I suppose I should have expected something like this to happen. We've been supervillain free for about a month now. Well, unless you count a really dumb robber and a guy with "clown powers" as supervillains, which I don't. Compared to Ultron, those guys were nothing. So the fact that S.H.I.E.L.D. sees these baddies as a threat is making me nervous.

"What are we facing?" Liberty asks, voicing the question that I and the rest of the team are wondering.

Director Fury sighs. "Not much is known about them other than that they have some sort of ice powers and are shouting about taking over the planet."

"They're also giant," Coulson pipes up, earning him a glare from Fury.

Wow, Frost Giants have frost powers and are giant. I never would have guessed. For some reason, the song "Frosty the Snowman" pops into my head, so I start to hum it.

"Now then," Fury begins, "before you all get out in the field, let's go over ice resistance. Laura, I know you'll be fine because of whatever ice powers you have, and Liberty, you can freeze, but you'll be fine once you thaw out, like your dad. The rest of you, please remind me what amount of freeze resistance you have?"

"My suit is completely freeze resistant," Noah says. "I had Mr. Stark check it over. It'll prevent me from being frozen as long as it's not damaged."

"I'm kinda the opposite," Joe chuckles. "I have no ice resistance whatsoever. Guess I'd better stick to shooting arrows from rooftops."

"I think I have some ice resistance, I mean, because that time…." Anne trails off, and I realize she is talking about the time I accidently froze her into a human Popsicle. I still feel like crap about that, and our friendship is only just starting to get back to normal.

Anne sighs. "What I mean is, I don't think much can stop me in my Green Girl form," she says, her gaze dropping to the floor.

"I'm obviously tougher than an average human, but I can still freeze," Sam says, crossing his arms angrily.

Fury nods. "Alright, that was for me to know and you to keep in mind. I don't want to have to defrost your sorry asses because you don't know how much cold you can handle, you hear?"

All of us nod. There is silence for a moment, then Sam yells "I wish we could stop hearing Laura's humming!"

Oops, I guess I was still humming "Frosty the Snowman without realizing it. "Sorry, the song was on the radio this morning, and now I have it stuck in my head."

Anne frowns. "But it's not even Thanksgiving yet."

"I know, right?" I exclaim. "I think they should at least wait until after Thanksgiving to play holiday songs."

"DO YOU THINK THIS IS A JOKE?!" Sam yells. "YOU OF ALL PEOPLE SHOULD KNOW THAT FROST GIANTS ARE… Shit!" Sam yells suddenly, staring out the window. I look out my own window and see that the formerly clear weather is suddenly a snowstorm! Huh, maybe it is about that time of year for holiday music.

"What's the chance of precipitation for today? Coulson asks.

Maria looks it up on her tablet. "O percent."

"Then these Frost Giants are a hell of a lot more powerful than we thought!" Fury exclaims. "I have to land. You six," he says, locking eyes with each of us, "be ready to move." With that, the jet lands, and everyone gets out. We are all in our costumes already, so all we have to do is make our way towards the snowstorm.

Our costumes are looking particularly kick-ass today. Joe is looking sexy as ever in his Awesome Hoodie. Noah is looking high-tech in what he calls his Vector suit, which looks like a cross between an Iron Man suit and one of Ultron's minions, since he got the parts from a defeated Ultron minion. Anne is looking a bit nervous in her brown shirt and blue jeans, but I know she'll be quite confident if she needs to Hulk out.

As for me, I'm enjoying my new costume, which has a Black Widow-ish look to it, but with a blue-tinted helmet that hides my face. Coulson decided the outfit I bought at the party store did, in fact, look too much like a robber's outfit, so he offered to buy me a better one, which was nice of him. Apparently, I remind him of some Sky person on his team, so he wanted to help.

Liberty and Sam are the only people not in costume, due to everyone already knowing their secret identities. Sam is wearing navy blue and yellow athletic clothing, and Liberty is wearing navy blue and red athletic clothing. The blue of their outfits match, which makes me wonder if they planned that to look all couple-y, or if it's just a coincidence. I also wonder why neither of them chose to keep their identity a secret when they were younger. I keep meaning to ask, until I remember that they're Liberty and Sam, and I don't like talking to either of them.

However, outfits are the least of my problems when I realize what we are up against. It turns out Frost Giants are, in fact, eight feet tall, with blue skin, red eyes, and, um, not much clothing. While the fact that they're only wearing loincloths in a blizzard is strange, the strangest thing is how their blue skin and red eyes look the same as MY blue skin and red eyes when I'm in my Blue Form. Why would they look so much like me? Unless… they're Asgardians? But Asgard doesn't want to take over the Earth, do they? Also, Uncle Thor said Loki turning blue was rare, but there's an army of blue warrior dudes stretching as far as I can see! That doesn't seem rare, so what gives?

Unfortunately, I don't have time to figure it out, because a Frost Giant has just spotted me and shoots ice at me! I quickly dodge to the side, then shapeshift into a tiger. I've been practicing shapeshifting, and discovered that cats and big cats are my specialty. Also monkeys for some reason, although shapeshifting into a monkey seems kind of useless. I mean, they're kind of like humans, except better at climbing, and since I can already teleport to high places, being a monkey seems kind of useless.

Being a tiger, however, is very helpful. As the Frost Giant who shot ice at me advances, I run towards him and knock him over. Two more Frost Giants advance, and I give one of them a good swipe with my paws, claws sheathed. I don't want to hurt them too badly unless I have to.

Unfortunately, the Frost Giants don't feel the same way, because, before I can manage to block the third Frost Giant, he sends a blast of ice my way! I guess the Force just isn't with me today. Unable to dodge in time, the blast hits me, and I feel myself start to shrink back into my human form. Only… I feel different than usual. I look at my hand and see that it's blue. I must be in my blue form, which means I look a lot like the Frost Giants.

I'm not the only one who notices this. The Frost Giant who was just trying to freeze me shouts something in another language, causing the other two Frost Giants I was fighting to look at me and shout as well. The three of them then start arguing in another language.

Since no one is attacking me at the moment, I take a quick glance around at what my teammates are doing. I see Liberty and Sam beating the crap out of Frost Giants twice their size, Noah alternating between fist-fighting with Frost Giants on the ground and firing energy beams at them from the air, Joe firing down arrows from a nearby rooftop, and Anne standing on the rooftop with him, ready to climb down in Green Girl form if she's needed. As for the Avengers, I can't see them from here, but I do see lightning flashing a few blocks away, so that's probably where Thor and the other Avengers are.

As I gaze at the lightning, my view is suddenly blocked by the face of a Frost Giant, who is standing in front of me. I turn around to walk away, but find that I am completely surrounded by Frost Giants! Oh well. A quick teleport will get me away from them… but I can't teleport! Shit! I forgot my non-ice powers don't work when I'm in Blue Form. Now what'll I do?!

The Frost Giants start moving in closer. One touches my arm, another tugs at my hair. "Hey!" I exclaim, because having my hair pulled hurts. I shoot a blast of ice from my hands at the Frost Giant to make sure he gets the message, but it bounces harmlessly off him, and the only message the Frost Giants seem to get is to examine my hands. I really wish I could teleport away, because this is majorly creeping me out. I mean, I'm glad the Frost Giants aren't fighting me, but considering they look about ready to either dissect me or ask me out, I might actually prefer the fighting.

Suddenly, there is a gust of wind, and Loki appears! "Get your filthy hands off my daughter!" he snarls, before grabbing hold of me and teleporting us away. We land in a small alleyway between tall buildings, and looking around, I can't see anyone else, friend, or Frost Giant.

"Are you well?" Loki asks, and I am surprised at how concerned he sounds.

"Yeah," I reply. "What are you doing here?" After all, the last time I saw him, not counting that one time before Homecoming, he was trying to take over the world. What if that's what he's doing now? What if the Frost Giants are his army? It was bad enough finding out my dad is evil. I don't want to have to deal with his frosty, blue Stormtroopers as well.

"Stopping these monsters from ruling your planet," Loki snarls.

"Oh," I reply, surprised. He could be lying, but he could be legit. "Why do they want our planet?" I ask. "Asgard is an awesome planet, right?"

"The Jotun are most certainly NOT from Asgard!" Loki yells. "They are from the realm of Jotunheim."

"Oh," I reply. "So, uh, how's their realm doing?"

"Their planet was nearly destroyed," Loki replies.

"Oh no!" I exclaim, feeling bad for them now. Not bad enough to let them rule our planet, but still bad. "How did that happen?"

Loki remains silent for several seconds. Finally, he sighs. "Laura, we need to talk."

 **AN: I made a mistake last chapter. I made it sound like six S.H.I.E.L.D. agents and six teenagers could fit in one car, which is pretty much impossible unless it's a limo, and I doubt S.H.I.E.L.D. agents would be driving a limo to a battle, so I decided this chapter that they were flying in a S.H.I.E.L.D. jet instead.**

 **Also, if you're wondering why there's so many** _ **Star Wars**_ **references, it's because I saw "The Force Awakens", and it was awesome!**


	3. Talks and Frozen Teardrops

**Talks and Frozen Teardrops**

"Sure, what's up?" I ask, like talking to my supervillain dad is totally normal.

"I suppose Thor has told you of our heritage," he says, spitting out the words "Thor" and "heritage".

"No," I reply. "What do you mean?"

"I mean my true species," Loki snarls.

"Wouldn't that just be Asgardian?" I ask, confused.

Loki stares at me for a few seconds, as though trying to see if I'm lying or not. The corner of his eye twitches. Finally, he mutters "I am surprised Thor has not told you of this, or Odin for that matter. Then again, he kept the truth hidden from me for centuries, so perhaps it is not surprising. I am not Odin's son, or Thor's brother. I was adopted," he hisses, getting angrier and angrier, "no, STOLEN by Odin when I was a baby! AND THEN HE HAS THE NERVE!" Loki shouts, shuddering with rage "THE NERVE TO TELL ME ALL MY LIFE THAT I COULD BE KING, SAME AS THOR, WHEN REALLY, I'M THE SON OF THE KING OF FROST GIANTS! HE WOULD NEVER LET ME BE KING! I WAS MEANT TO BE A LIVING PEACE OFFERING!" Loki yells, slamming his fist into a nearby building and leaving a streak of blood on the wall.

I am stunned. I never knew why Loki tried to take over our planet all those years ago, but I'm guessing this has something to do with it. Getting lied to is never fun. That's why, despite being the daughter of the "god" of lies, I try not to lie too much, although I did my fair share of that when I first discovered my powers. I can only imagine how hurt Loki would be after discovering a lie that had been going on for centuries. Still, that's no excuse for trying to take over a planet. Loki doesn't need a planet to rule, he needs a therapist!

Unfortunately, I am not a therapist, and as Loki turns towards me with blood on his fist, and a cruel gleam in his eyes, I have no clue what to say. Part of me wants to run away, but another part of me would feel terrible for just leaving my dad without trying to make things better. I mean, he is my dad. So I give the super intelligent response of "That's not cool."

For a second, Loki looks like he's about to punch another wall. Then, he sighs, and his eyes lose their manic intensity. "It was not 'cool'," he agrees. "That is why I had to prove Odin wrong, to show him I'm not like the Jotun. That is why I tried to destroy their planet."

"WHAT?!" I yell. B-but you just said you're related to them! How could you!" I yell.

"It does not matter. Thor ruined everything before I could finish," Loki says, like not killing all the Frost Giants was a tragedy.

"YOU'RE A MONSTER!" I yell, not even caring that he's my dad anymore. I mean, what kind of dad destroys planets? Not the kind I want to be around, that's for sure! I start walking, no, RUNNING away, not caring where I'm going, just anywhere away from my crazy dad, and my blue alien relatives. I'm paying so little attention to where I'm going that when I turn a corner, I run right into someone!

"Sorry!" I exclaim, getting up and offering a hand to the person I knocked over.

"Laura!" A familiar voice exclaims. I look down at the person I knocked over and realize it's Coulson. "I'm glad you're alright," he says, reaching for my hand. "My team and I have been looking for you ever since I saw Loki teleport you—AAH!" he exclaims. I look at Coulson, who is now standing, and see his hand turning blue where I grabbed him.

"Sorry!" I exclaim, for what seems like the millionth time. Here I go, ruining everything with my out-of-control powers, as usual.

Fortunately, as I watch, Coulson's hand slowly starts to defrost. Unfortunately, between Coulson's scream and my apologies, Loki has managed to find me. "Laura, you will…." he trails off as he sees Coulson. "You should be dead."

"Sorry to disappoint you," Coulson says, keeping his tone light, but I know him well enough to tell that he's scared. And, honestly, so am I. Coulson is a nice guy, the type of guy I wish was my dad. I don't know why Loki thinks he should be dead, but I'm guessing that means he's going to try to kill him. My real dad trying to kill the guy I wish was my dad. Just great. Of course, I'm not just going to stand there and watch, I'm going to protect Coulson.

Unfortunately, it turns out Loki is the least of my problems, because a bunch of Frost Giants suddenly surround us! "Ah, the runt is hiding as usual," one of the Frost Giants sneers at Loki, "but it is no matter. You will be brought to justice, and this planet will fall! Come," the giant sneers, and his minions push us forwards. Surrounded by minions I realize I have no choice but to obey… for now. I briefly wonder why the Frost Giants are speaking English now, while they weren't before, but I quickly try to focus on how to escape from my current predicament. However, when I realize that even Loki is silently obeying the Jotun, I wonder if there is any hope left.

I don't know what's worse: the fact that these Frost Giants might take over their planet, that my dad destroyed theirs, or that I'm related to all of these people. Before I even realize what's happening, snowflakes start falling out of my eyes. Great. Not only am I crying, I'm crying like a weirdo alien in front of my enemies/relatives who will probably laugh at me about it. How could this day get any worse? Then I see how the fight is going, and I realize that yes, things CAN get worse!


	4. Frigid Fighting

**Frigid Fighting**

Liberty has been frozen into a block of ice. Sam is throwing punches left and right and screaming at the Frost Giants for freezing his girlfriend while thunder booms overhead, but I can see his hands slowly turning blue. Even with his superhuman abilities, he's going to freeze soon. Noah is still holding out, but I can see several fist-sized dents in his robot suit, and know it's only a matter of time before the dents turn into holes and he freezes as well. Joe is still shooting arrows, but I can see some Frost Giants climbing up the building he's on in an attempt to change that.

The only person who doesn't look like she's in immediate danger is Anne. In her Green Girl form now, she has taken down several of my somewhat-relatives and is looking around like _Who's next?!_ As I watch, she spots her next target: a particularly large Frost Giant. Anne picks him up with ease and slams his face into the ground until he doesn't get up again, her shirt sleeves tearing some more in the process. Anne's Hulk form isn't quite as big as her dad's, so while transforming causes her clothing to stretch and tear a bit, her cloths don't completely fall off the way her dad's do, thankfully, because that would be rather embarrassing. When I shapeshift, my cloths just magically disappear, then reappear when I turn back into a human. I can't imagine how many outfits Anne must have torn up as she learned to control her Green Girl form.

Although Anne is the toughest member of our team when she's angry, even she isn't completely immune to being frozen. Only I am, so it's up to me to save the day… somehow.

The group of Frost Giants leads the three of us past a bunch of frozen S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, the few who aren't frozen frantically running away to call for backup. We walk for a ways, away from where my teammates are fighting, and also away from where the Avengers are fighting in the distance. Instead, we are heading towards an ever-increasing swarm of Frost Giants… a swarm that is coming out of a portal!

"Shit! It's like the portals in the first New York attack!" I exclaim. Then I frown. "Wait, I thought the Tesseract was in Vision's head or something?"

"There is more than one way to create a portal," a Frost Giant sneers. This makes me annoyed, because he seems to think I'm stupid, and because I didn't realize I was talking out loud. I turn to look at the Frost Giant who spoke, and am surprised to find that he is wearing fancier cloths than the rest, and by that, I mean he's actually wearing cloths. He has on thick, black and blue armor and a hat made of icicles. No, not a hat, a CROWN!

"Bow to his majesty!" A Frost Giant yells. He then repeats himself, because none of us bow. King Frosty looks at my un-bowing form disapprovingly, then he turns his disapproving glare to Loki, and freezes. "YOU!" King Frosty snarls, stomping over to my dad and towering over him menacingly. "GIVE ME ONE GOOD REASON WHY I SHOULDN'T KILL YOU RIGHT NOW!"

"Perhaps because, as much as it pains me to admit it, you are my brother," Loki snarls, not looking afraid at all.

King Frosty blinks, as though debating whether to kill Loki or not. "Yes, it is painful to have a traitorous runt as a brother," he huffs. "ESPECIALLY AFTER YOU KILLED OUR FATHER!"

Wow. Forget anything I said about Adoptive Uncle Thor being annoying. I'd pick him to be my relative over Loki any day! That is, if I could actually pick my relatives instead of them being chosen by genetics.

"With our leader dead and our planet nearly destroyed, we were in chaos!" my uncle-unless-he's-lying says. "My brothers and I fought for the throne for many years, until I finally emerged victorious. It was no easy task, mind you, with so many siblings, but now I am in control, and I VOW TO MAKE THIS PLANET OUR NEW HOME IF IT'S THE LAST THING I DO!"

Shit! My uncle doesn't sound like he's going to give up. He also sounds like he has a lot of siblings. I can't help envisioning an awkward family get together, with a bunch of uncles wearing loincloths showing up to our human family cookout, sitting hunched over on mortal-sized picnic tables while I call them all by the wrong name because there's too many to remember their names. Then I realize I should be worrying about surviving long enough to even make it to a family get together.

I look over at Loki to see if he has a plan, being the "god" of tricking people and whatnot, and am surprised to see him standing there calmly, his face a blank mask. Considering how angry he got just thinking about the Frost Giants earlier, I'm surprised he's not screaming in Uncle Frosty's face. I figure his poker face means he's plotting something, but whether it's a plan to stop the war or kill all the Frost Giants remains to be seen….

"What is this mortal doing here?!" Uncle Frosty yells, interrupting my thoughts. He must have just noticed Coulson is a prisoner as well.

"This mortal is one of the leaders of Midgard, King of the Shield," a Frost Giant explains… or thinks he is explaining.

I raise an eyebrow. "Hear that, Coulson? You're a king now," I tease.

As nervous as he is, Coulson manages a smile. "It seems like there's been a misunderstanding. I'm not a king, I'm just in charge of special agents… warriors is probably what you'd call them. And I'm just the Commander-in-Chief. Director Fury is the leader.

"THEN WHAT ARE YOU DOING BRINGING ME THIS ONE?!" Uncle Frosty yells at a Frost Giant, as though Coulson wasn't worth talking to. "GET ME THE LEADER!"

"Yes, my lord!" the Frost Giant exclaims. "What should I do with this one, my lord?"

"It does not matter," Uncle Frosty says, waving his hand dismissively. "They will all be defeated soon enough."

The Frost Giants let Coulson go, who rushes to help his fellow S.H.I.E.L.D. agents. Then the Frost Giants turn back to Loki and I. The Frost Giants look at Loki with undisguised hatred, and I can see Loki looking back at them with emotion this time, but it's not anger, it's a smirk! I realize suddenly that there is a green glow around Loki, and I have a feeling the Frost Giants aren't going to like whatever that glow will cause.

As hard as I've been trying to stay cheerful, I can't joke my way out of this one. If I don't do something, my dad and my uncles are going to kill each other! Unfortunately, my odds of winning a fight against giants without my powers are pretty much zero. So I do the only thing I can do in a time like this: create a distraction.

"Sooooo… Mr. Frost King, sir, why are you attacking the Earth?" I ask, stepping in between my dad and my uncle. "We didn't destroy your planet."

Uncle Frosty makes a "Humph!" sound. "My name is Brynjar, halfling. And what would you do if earthquakes suddenly destroyed half your planet?! It has been years, yet the damage still has been barely repaired. Some of it can never be fixed! And since the Asgardians do not see fit to help us repair, we do not see fit to honor our agreement of staying clear of their little _pet_ planet, Midgard!"

"Ah, I see. Yeah, that really sucks. But why here? I'm guessing you guys like the cold, but the Earth is only frozen at the poles, and it seems like the planet might be getting even warmer soon, so, like, why?

Brynjar chuckles. "Ah, but that is where you are wrong. Why look for a frozen planet when we can just freeze yours? A thick coating of ice over your planet is the only change necessary to support our lifestyle, and that can be accomplished in a matter of hours!" he smiles, like this is amazing news.

I frown. "Um, not to burst your bubble, but people aren't just going to sit around and let you freeze them into people-cicles."

Brynjar smiles like the thought is amusing. "And what would they do, fight me? Your best warriors, the Avengers, are already defeated. What hope would ordinary mortals have?"

The Avengers are defeated? Nervously, I look to the sky, and realize there isn't any Thor-lightning or Iron Man-lasers lighting it up anymore. Stupid Uncle Frosty might be telling the truth.

I also notice that Sam has joined Liberty in being frozen by the Frost Giants, leaving just Joe, Noah, and Anne left fighting on our team. As I watch, Noah flies towards the building that Joe is on and shoots energy beams at the Frost Giants who are climbing up it, knocking several of them off. Joe turns towards Noah and grins, while at the same time shooting a net arrow at a Frost Giant that hits its target, sending the giant in an un-graceful tumble towards the ground.

"Nice shot, Vector!" Joe calls, quickly turning back to notch another arrow.

"Glad to lend a hand, G Wiz," Noah replies, his voice sounding a bit deeper from his helmet. I'm glad to hear they're remembering to use their superhero names instead of their real names. But I'm not glad to see what happens next. While Noah was distracted by talking to Joe, a Frost Giant fired a blast of magic ice at him, which just so happens to hit a tiny hole in his suit, effectively freezing Noah and sending him spiraling towards the ground! Jeering, the Frost Giants resume their climb up the building to freeze Joe.

Well, shit! I wish I could teleport over and help Joe, but I'm still stuck in my stupid Frost Giant-minus-the-giant-part form. Some ninja I am! My superhero name is Ninja by the way, partially because, after my first battle, Joe referred to my teleporting powers as "ninja moves," and also because the first time I made illusion copies of myself like Loki, I couldn't help thinking about Naruto and his shadow doppelgangers. What can I say? I like manga.

What I don't like are evil uncle kings. When Brynjar follows my gaze to where Noah/Vector is falling towards the ground and grins, I remember that I have to do something. The only problem is, I can't think of any good solution to win this fight. So I think of a way to end it instead.

"We can give you Antarctica," I blurt out.

Brynjar looks at me curiously. "What is this 'Antarctica' you speak of?"

"It's a large area of land right over the south pole, so it's always frozen. Humans don't want to live there, because it's too cold. I don't even think there's many animals there, just some penguins and stuff. I guess that means you guys wouldn't have much to eat though. How do you feel about eating penguins?"

"WHAT IN THE WORLD ARE YOU DOING?!"

I turn and see Director Fury, walking towards me along with two Frost Giants. Apparently they found their 'King of the Shield' to negotiate with.

"Did I hear you say the Frost Giants could have Antarctica?" Director Fury asks.

"Um… maybe?"

"YOU HAVE NO RIGHT TO SPEAK FOR OUR PLANET! YOU AREN'T EVEN FULLY HUMAN!"

I wince at that, but unlike earlier, I'm feeling more angry than sad. "Well, EXCUSE ME for trying to be helpful! In case you haven't noticed, we're losing this battle. If giving them a continent ends this war, then why not do that? It's not like anyone lives there anyways."

"THAT'S NOT THE POINT!" Fury yells. "I'M IN CHARGE HERE, NOT YOU! I mean," he continues, "do you really think people want to share a planet with these aliens who tried to destroy us, who pop in and out of portals and will do god knows what to one-seventh of our land?!"

"Ok, ok! I get your point. I was stupid. Gosh!" I yell at Fury. I mean, yeah, offering the Frost Giants Antarctica was kind of stupid, but it certainly wasn't the worst idea I thought up in a matter of seconds. I mean, it did do its job of distracting… oh, wait.

While I was arguing with Fury, I forgot my other goal besides ending this battle: keeping Brynjar and Loki distracted so they won't kill each other. Alarmed, I look around and realize that while my uncle's attention was focused on my Antarctica offer, Loki has been inching to the side, to a spot where he can attack Brynjar with his powers without me blocking him. And just as I notice this, Loki attacks!

 **AN: I don't actually know if Loki has any brothers. Brynjar is an original character. I was googling Norwegian names, and Brynjar is supposed to mean "armored warrior," which I figured was a good name for someone leading a battle.**


	5. Uncle Frosty vs the Pirate Fan Club

**Uncle Frosty vs. the Pirate Fan Club**

My first thought is: _How did I get distracted by my own distraction?!_ Then Loki's blast hits, and all I can think is _WHAAAAAAAT?!_ because Loki turned my uncle into a toad!

"RIBBIT!" Brynjar exclaims, and I start laughing hysterically. I mean, come on, turning someone into a toad? Is my dad an alien, or the Wicked Witch of the West?

I stop laughing soon enough, however, when one of the king's guards yells and shoots a blast of ice at my dad! It doesn't hurt him, of course, since he's a Frost Giant too, but the way Loki snarls when his skin flickers blue makes me want to run away. Loki quickly changes back to his Asgardian form and shoots more green light at the Frost Giants around him, turning them into a variety of unpleasant animals, such as cockroaches, pigs, and rats. He seems to be tiring from this, though, because he looks at me and says "You can help anytime."

"Actually, I can't. I'm stuck in this form," I reply.

Loki frowns. "You should not get stuck," he says, turning a nearby Frost Giant into a donkey as he talks. "Only I was charmed to stay in my Asgardian form. You should be able to change forms as you please."

"I wish I could," I grumble. "I hate getting randomly stuck like this whenever I least want to."

Loki frowns as he dodges punches and ice from the Frost Giants. "Are you sure it is random? When have you gotten stuck like this?"

I'm not really sure I should be telling a supervillain all about my powers. Then again, he is my dad, and the world is about to end, so what the hell? "Well, I got stuck a few times for just a little bit when I first discovered my powers. Then, when I found out you were my dad, I got stuck for a whole weekend. I also got stuck for a while at Sam's birthday party, which really sucked! I mean, it's bad enough that I didn't fit in at the party, but then to suddenly turn into an alien made me feel like the biggest freak ever!

Loki thinks in silence for a moment. Well, as silent as he can be while fighting Frost Giants anyways. Finally, he asks me a surprising question: "What are you?"

"Huh?" I ask, both confused what he's asking and distracted by the Frost Giants that are attacking. "…I'm a Jotun right now," I say, not sure if that's what he's getting at.

"But what are you really?" Loki asks. I glance at him to see what he's getting at, but his face has become as blank as a mask again.

"…Human," I say, after a slight hesitation.

"You aren't sure," Loki replies. A statement, not a question.

"I mean, I was raised human, and I want to be human, but maybe I'm not. Maybe the reason I'm so bad at being a hero is because I was meant to be a villain, like you and literally all of my relatives!" I exclaim, gesturing to all the Frost Giants around us.

Loki glares at me when I call him a villain, then spins away to dodge Frost Giant punches. When he faces me again, his expression looks a bit sad. "Think of all the good times you had in mortal form." When I give him a confused look, he snaps "Just do it!"

Frowning, I try to concentrate, which isn't easy while dodging an army of Frost Giants. Still, I manage to think about meeting Joe, making fun of Twilight movies with Anne, laughing with Joe as I step on his toes for the millionth time at the Homecoming dance, and dousing Liberty in silly string. I feel my cheeks getting warm, probably because I was thinking about Joe. Then I realize it's not just my cheeks that are warm, but my entire body! I'm back in my human form!

"Wow!" I exclaim, then almost get punched in the face by a Frost Giant because I lost my focus. "How did you know that would work?"

"I had a theory," Loki says simply. "It seems that you get 'stuck' in Jotun form whenever you are unsure of who you are. It is your emotions you need control over, not your powers. Of course, in life-threatening cold, your body will automatically change to Jotun form to survive. That is how I first discovered this form," Loki says, bitterly. "Odin had just enough heart to let my true form reveal itself if I were in danger of dying of cold."

"Oh," I reply. "Well, thanks for your help dad!" I say, barely realizing what I'm saying, because now that I can use my powers again, I need to help Joe!

I quickly teleport to the building that Joe is on, and am alarmed to find the Frost Giants are hauling themselves up to stand on the roof of the building! I grab Joe and teleport us away just as the first Frost Giant stands up and fires ice at us.

We land on the roof of a building right above where Loki is fighting. I picked this building because I realized Joe could shoot arrows down from there to help us out. However, what I did not realize was how tightly I was holding Joe. I grabbed on to him as hard as I could to make sure he'd come with me when I teleported and not die, but now that we're done teleporting, the fact that I'm basically hugging Joe as close as possible is now majorly awkward. "Sorry!" I exclaim, letting go quickly.

Joe smiles, "No worries, you just saved my life!" but something about his expression makes me think he's pretending to be happier than he really is. I don't have time to wonder why, however, because just then, Loki teleports next to us.

"I see you ignored my advice," Loki says, glaring at us. He must have been watching our awkward teleport.

"Sorry… actually, I'm not sorry!" I exclaim. "Joe is who I want to date. When did you start caring what I do, anyways?"

"When I realized you are my daughter," Loki replies softly. "I care about you, even if you are too naïve to long for the throne you will someday inherit.

"Oh," I reply. I realize that, after our first meeting where he wanted me to help him rule the world, he has been looking out for me in his own way, whether it be making sure my mom is alright (didn't go so well), or threatening S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to let me out of containment (it's a long story, really didn't go so well).

Loki sighs. "Well then, if you can bear to leave this 'boyfriend' for a few seconds, I suppose we should save this pathetic planet."

Rolling my eyes, I teleport to the ground and wait for my dad to tell me what he has planned. However, all he does is make a bunch of illusion copies of himself and leap into battle. Frowning, I make three illusion of myself, the most I can manage, and start fighting as well. Above me, Joe starts shooting arrows at the Frost Giants coming our way, but more and more keep pouring out of the portal. I try to stay positive, but I can't help feeling like we've already lost. Looking around, I still see no signs that the Avengers are still fighting. As for our team, Anne, too, is now frozen, and the only S.H.I.E.L.D. agent that isn't frozen is Director Fury, who is arguing with Brynjar about something, possibly Antarctica.

Wait a minute, Brynjar? Shit! Loki's animal curse must have worn off. That means even more Frost Giants to deal with! How are we ever going to win this?!

Just when I think things can't get any worse, a huge portal opens in the sky! I feel like crying more snowflakes when I see… wait a minute, humanoid guys in gold armor?!

The Frost Giants, Loki, Joe, and I all stop fighting and just stare at the golden-clad warriors that are touching down around us in circles with weird ruins on them. Then an elderly man sporting fancier armor, a crown, a long grey beard, and an eyepatch touches down, and the portal closes. When he sees the Frost Giants, he bellows "YOU HATH BROKEN OUR AGREEMENT! PREPARE TO DIE!" With that, the warriors who I now realize are from Asgard charge at the Frost Giants!

With the Asgardians helping us, it looks like we might actually stand a chance! I teleport away from a Frost Giant with renewed energy… only to trip over another Frost Giant's foot and fall flat on my face!

"Need a hand?"

"Thanks," I say, grabbing the hand that is offered to me and looking up into the face of a woman in gold armor.

"Lady Sif! A hand, please?" a voice calls. I turn and see three warriors who are backed into a building. One has blond hair and looks nervous, another has red hair and crumbs in his red beard and looks confident, and the third has black hair and looks like he is absolutely daring anyone to get in his way.

Lady Sif rolls her eyes. "Why must I always rescue them?" she grumbles, before hurrying to help her friends.

I soon forget all about those warriors, however, because the Asgardian king guy yells something and unleashes a powerful wave of energy! At first, it seems like nothing is changed, until I hear a loud CRACK! I look around and realize that the cracking sound was hundreds of frozen heroes breaking out of the ice they were imprisoned in! All my teammates are back in the fight!

With all of the Asgardian army, the Avengers, S.H.I.E.L.D., my team, and Loki fighting them, the Frost Giants soon realize this is a fight they cannot win. "This isn't over!" Brynjar snarls, as the last of his warriors teleports back through the portal. "Our planet was destroyed, our people have died, and for that, there will be justice!" With that, he steps through the portal, and it closes.

For a moment, everyone is silent. Then the cheering starts. "TONIGHT, IN ASGARD, THERE SHALL BE A GREAT FEAST!" the Asgardian king who I realize must be Odin yells, causing the Asgardian warriors to cheer. S.H.I.E.L.D. agents start cheering the victory as well, and the Avengers finally arrive from across the city and reunite with their kids. Everyone is happy. Everyone except Loki.

"You alright, dad?" I ask hesitantly.

"I am glad your planet survived, but I wish you mortals could fight your own battles. Do not expect me to always come to your aid," Loki says coldly.

"NAY, IF ANYTHING, WE WOULD EXPECT THE OPPOSITE!" a voice booms. I turn around and see Odin glaring at Loki. "IF DESTROYING JOTUNHEIM WASN'T ENOUGH REASON TO BE PUNISHED, ATTEMPTING TO RULE MIDGARD AND IMPERSONATING ME ARE REASONS FOR YOU TO SPEND THE REST OF YOUR LIFE IN JAIL!" With that, Odin grabs Loki and starts dragging him towards the portal to Asgard like a child being sent to time-out.

I watch as the two of them disappear, and then Odin reappears and seems to notice me for the first time. "You are the daughter of Loki," he announces.

"Um… yes?" I say nervously. How does he know that? Did Thor tell him?

"I am all-seeing," Odin says, which I guess answers my question, and also majorly creeps me out. He pauses. "I hear you fought well today."

"Thank you," I reply.

Odin smiles slightly at my response, but doesn't seem overly pleased. He studies me for a few seconds, then says "Well, I must be going. We shall meet again," he says, then walks away. I can't help noticing that he didn't sound too happy about the meeting again part. It seems like, on the one hand, he was saying we'll see each other again because we're family, while on the other hand, saying that if I pull any tricks like Loki, he'll be there to drag me to jail as well. What a lovely grandpa.

Odin starts walking back towards the portal, but is stopped by Fury. "Are you Odin, king of Asgard?" Fury asks.

Odin nods. "That is I."

"I'm Nick Fury, director of S.H.I.E.L.D.," Fury says, extending a hand for Odin to shake. "I believe having a talk could benefit both our planets."

As Odin and Fury talk, I find myself looking at their eye patches. People like to joke about how Fury's eyepatch makes him look like a pirate, and with Odin next to him, they look like a full-blown pirate fan club.

Just then, Fury notices me staring at him. "What now?" he grumbles.

"Arr, it be nothing, matey!" I giggle.

"LAURA! THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR JOKES!" Fury huffs.

I think the end of a depressing battle is the perfect time to joke around and cheer up, but before I can speak, Odin says "Why doest thou speak so strangely?"

I don't think anyone who says "thou" should be correcting my language, but Fury says "She thinks our eyepatches make us look like pirates."

"WHAT?!" Odin yells. "I'LL HAVE YOU KNOW I LOST THIS EYE IN A GLORIOUS BATTLE!" he says, glaring at me as though debating what size prison uniform to order me.

"You don't even want to know how I lost my eye!" Fury exclaims.

"Ok, ok, I was just kidding. You guys look kick-ass and non-pirate-y," I grumble, backing away so that Odin and Fury can resume talking.

I would like to talk to more people, maybe that cool Asgardian warrior lady who helped me up, but I suddenly realize I'm exhausted. Now that my adrenaline rush from the battle has worn off, all I want to do is sleep. I see Joe sitting with his back against a building, his eyes half closed, and I decide to sit down next to him. Joe opens his eyes and nods at me, then closes them again. The two of us rest there for a few minutes, somewhere between asleep and awake, until S.H.I.E.L.D. agents come to fly us and the Avengers home.


	6. Pranks and Problems

**Pranks and Problems**

 **Joe's POV**

Man, that fight yesterday was intense! Fighting an army of alien warriors who can't turn your back on for a second or they'll freeze you is not for the faint of heart! When I saw Liberty go down, I thought we were goners! I was worried about Laura, until I remembered her ice powers prevent her from being frozen. If anything, she fought better than I did! Don't get me wrong, I'm glad she can kick ass in a fight, but I should be able to do the same. Getting rescued by my girlfriend was embarrassing! That's why I'm building a grappling hook that I can use to swing from building to building, so in the future, I won't get stuck at the top of a building like that.

The grappling hook isn't the only project I've been working on though. Laura and Anne pranked my best friend's girlfriend, and I think it's about time they receive a prank in return….

It takes skill to keep staring at the computer screen as Laura walks into class, sits down… and lets out a loud PFFFFFFFFFT! sound!

"HUH?!" Laura exclaims, before standing up and pulling a whoopee cushion off her chair. She turns to me, whoopee cushion in hand, eyebrows raised. "Really, Joe? A whoopee cushion? That's the best you can come up with?"

I shrug. "Hey, you fell for it. So much for being the best pranker around," I say, smirking.

"Oh, you're on!" Laura exclaims, her eyes gleaming.

I turn back to my computer screen, excited and a bit nervous. I'm her boyfriend. She wouldn't prank me too badly, right?

I find out during lunch, when Laura offers me some gum. "Want some gum?" she asks.

"Sure," I reply, reaching for the piece that is already sticking out of the pack. But instead of being able to pull the piece out, I get a shock, literally! The gum shocks me, causing me to yelp, and Laura to giggle.

"It's prank gum," she explains when I glare at her. "Who didn't see the prank coming now?"

Just then, Sam sits down. "Hey, Joe," he says, then notices Laura's gum. "Ooh! I want a piece!"

"Here you go," Laura says, smiling sweetly as she hands him the pack of gum.

"No, wait—" I say, but it's too late. Sam gets shocked, and then he gets mad.

"YOU THINK YOU CAN SHOCK ME?! MAYBE I SHOULD SHOCK YOU!" he yells, then reaches over and shocks Laura with his lightning powers!

The lunch aids come running over. "Do we need to separate you three?" an aid asks.

"No," the three of us mumble.

"Then don't do that again," the aid scolds, before walking back over to his spot in the middle of the cafeteria to supervise everyone.

Darn. This was just supposed to be a fun prank war, but it seems like Sam is actually mad at Laura, and the insults Laura is now muttering under her breath at Sam shows she's mad at him as well. I hate that my best friend and my girlfriend are arguing, and want it to stop. Maybe I could prank both of them? Now there's an idea! If I could come up with a really good prank, they'd be so mad at me that they might forget about their own fight!

The only problem is, I don't have a really good prank idea, or anyone to help me. Anne seems like she's done pranking people, and Liberty seems like she never wanted there to be a prank war in the first place, so that just leaves… Noah.

Would Noah help me? Maybe. I text him during class, asking if he wants to hang out that afternoon. He texts back after class, saying he'll be at Stark Industries until seven, but he can come over after that.

We meet at my house after dinner, where, after being gushed over by my parents, Hawkeye and Mockingbird, about how well he did in the battle against the Frost Giants, we are finally able to get to work. "So, where's this grappling hook you were talking about?" Noah asks.

"Over here," I reply, pointing to the device on my desk. "I managed to make it out of a lightweight, yet sturdy material that can fit inside my hoodie pocket when folded up. The only problem is, once I use it, it takes forever to wind back up," I say, pointing to the stretched out and tangled grappling hook.

Noah scratches his head for a moment as he looks at the grappling hook, then seems to realize something. "You need a material that springs back into place as soon as it's not hooked on something. I saw something like that at Stark Industries. Maybe I can convince Tony to give you some."

"Thanks, bro!" I exclaim. "Did you get those from Tony?" I ask, pointing to a pair of robotic gloves that look like they belong on his Vector suit.

"Yeah," Noah replies. "My suit got damaged in the battle yesterday, so Tony gave me parts to repair it with. Since my gloves got completely destroyed, I had to rebuild them from scratch. I think they're about done though. I'm just going to test the repulsion strength with a baseball, then I'll connect them to my suit so they can shoot energy beams."

"Test it with a baseball? What do you mean?" I ask, confused.

"Here, I'll show you," Noah replies. He puts on one of the gloves, then drops a baseball into the hole in the middle. When he holds his hand up, palm outstretched, the baseball shoots out of the glove, hitting the wall with a THUD.

"Whoa! That's cool! I didn't know those robot gloves could fire things other than repulsor beams."

Noah smiles. "Yeah, they can shoot pretty much anything out of them that can fit in the hole."

"Anything…." I say, getting an idea. "Anything… including confetti?"

Noah looks at me like I've sprouted tentacles. "Um, yeah, I guess," he replies. "Confetti's too light to really fly in a straight line though. It would go all over the place."

I grin. "Even better!"

"Are you planning on using my Vector gloves to shoot confetti?" Noah asks.

"Actually, yes. You might have heard about a prank war that's going on…."

Noah rolls his eyes. "How could I miss it?" he comments dryly.

"…Anyways, the sides are changing. I'm thinking about pranking Sam and Laura, and shooting confetti at them when they least expect it sounds like the perfect prank. You want in?"

Noah looks thoughtful for a moment, then shrugs. "Sure, why not? I doubt any villains will be attacking right after the Frost Giants, and figuring out how to shoot confetti out of robot gloves sounds like a fun engineering challenge. I'm in."

"Great!" I exclaim. "Let's get started."

We work for a solid two hours, during which we get interrupted several times by my youngest brother, Juni, who thinks the confetti is a new toy for him to play with, and keeps trying to grab some. My oldest brother, James, also pops in once, asking me if I've seen his sunglasses. Why he would need sunglasses in the middle of winter, I don't know. Maybe he wants to look cool to impress some girl. Whatever reason he has, he forgets about it when he sees Noah's Vector gloves. He watches the two of us work on them for a few seconds, before saying "Well, well, well. My Brainiac brother finally found someone as weird as he is," before ruffling my hair and walking out of the room.

I do my best to ignore him, the same way I've been doing for the past few weeks. James may have had as many girlfriends as his namesake, James Bond, but he's not so great at spying, or archery, for that matter. Sure, he's alright, but he's not as good as dad is… or me. Ever since the media called my friends and me heroes after the Ultron attack, he's been acting all grumpy towards me. If I didn't know better, I'd say he's jealous. Why he would be jealous of me when he's the one who understands women though, I don't know.

Noah and I eventually finish the confetti gloves, and all that's left is to wait for tomorrow to set up the prank.

 **Time Skip**

I whistle as I walk down the hall, stopping in front of Laura's locker. Pulling a lock-picking arrow out of my backpack, I unlock Laura's locker and slip the Vector glove full of confetti inside. Following Noah's directions, I tie a string to the glove and the locker door in such a way that, when Laura opens the locker, the glove will spring open and shower her in confetti. Convinced of a job well done, I head to Sam's locker to set up the other glove.

I have barely finished rigging Sam's locker when I see him coming down the hall. "You ready to prank Laura yet?!" he asks angrily when he sees me.

I sigh. "You know, maybe you should talk things out," I say, because I think they should. I also know that Sam hates talking about his feelings, even to me. This shows when Sam just says "Whatever. I'm gonna be late," and yanks open his locker… to be doused in confetti!

"AAAAAAH!" Sam yells, jumping about a foot in the air. "What the… LAURA!" Sam yells, looking around wildly for his perceived pranker.

"Hahaha, the look on your face!" I laugh, alerting Sam to the pranker's true identity.

"Wait, you pranked me?" Sam asks, confused, a piece of confetti stuck in his hair. "I thought we were on the same team?"

"We are," I reply. "It's just…." Just then, I see Laura about to open her locker. "Laura's about to get pranked. Wanna watch?" I ask.

"Yeah!" Sam cheers, joining me in my rush down the hall to Laura's locker. We arrive just in time to see Laura open her locker… AND GET BLASTED IN THE FACE BY AN ENERGY BEAM?!

I scream, catching Laura in my arms as she falls towards the ground. Her face is pale, her eyes closed, but I can feel her breath against my chest, so she's still alive at least. Noah runs over, looking shocked, and a crowd of students and teachers soon surround us. I remain clinging to Laura, wondering if she'll be ok. How could this have happened? I saw Noah put confetti in the gloves, not a power source for energy beams. He's a good team member. He wouldn't do anything to hurt us. But if he didn't make the glove dangerous, who did?

Just then, Iron Man crashes down through the ceiling in front of us and exclaims "Joe Barton and Noah Bolton! You are coming with me!" I realize that another question should be _How much trouble are we in?_ and from the looks of it, it's a lot!


	7. Why Tony Shouldn't Interrogate People

**Why Tony Shouldn't Interrogate People**

 **Noah's POV**

I'm shocked. Who would want to hurt Laura? And, more importantly, who knows how to tamper with my Vector gloves? The only person I know of is Joe, but seeing how he's pale-faced and clutching Laura to him like she'll fade away without his embrace, I majorly doubt he did it.

Unfortunately, the way that Iron Man… no, my boss, is looking at me suspiciously means that I must be the main suspect. I still find it amazing to think that Iron Man, my childhood hero, is now paying me to work for his company. Unfortunately, I might not be working there for much longer if he thinks I KO'd my own teammate.

"Bruce, check on the student," Tony says, gesturing to Laura. I realize they are pretending like they don't know us so as not to reveal our secret identities. Bruce looks Laura over, then frowns. "She might have a concussion, but is otherwise fine."

"A CONCUSION?! THAT'S NOT FINE!" Joe yells, concerned for his girlfriend.

"No, that's not fine," Captain America says. "That's why we're going to get to the bottom of this. "You two," he says, gesturing to Joe and me, "you're coming with me."

With Bruce and Hawkeye promising to watch Laura, Joe and I follow Captain America and Iron Man outside, then into their jet.

Tony clears his throat. "Wow, Steve, this jet takes interrogation to new heights!"

"Very funny," Steve replies. "Considering we heard about this accident on the way back from stopping Doctor Doom, this will have to do as an interrogation room." With that, Steve walks out of the room. Tony turns to face us, and I realize he will be doing the interrogating. I'm surprised Hawkeye isn't doing it, since he's the second-best spy after Black Widow… until I remember he's Joe's father and would be biased.

"Sooo… interrogation. You're probably wondering why I'm doing it." Tony says, pacing around the room as he talks. "I'm not much of an interrogator, but I am an engineer, and I know there's only one person who can take apart a repulser glove and put it back together perfectly," he says, stopping pacing and staring directly at me!

I swallow. "It's not what it looks like—"

"Noah's a good teammate." Joe pipes up. "He wouldn't do this.

"Oh, I know that!" Tony exclaims.

"You do?" Joe and I ask at the same time.

"Of course!" Tony exclaims. "I said that only you could put it back together perfectly, and if you look here," Tony says, picking up my Vector glove with his Iron Man glove on, so as not to get his fingerprints on it, "you'll see that there is smoke coming out of this glove. Whoever messed with it didn't get the wires quite right, and I know you know how to wire it properly. That brings us to you!" Tony says, turning his stare on Joe.

"YOU THINK I WOULD HURT MY OWN GIRLFRIEND?!" Joe yells. I realize that this is the angriest I've ever seen him.

"Of course not!" Tony exclaims. "I was just wondering if you know of anyone who might want to hurt her?"

Joe shrugs listlessly. "Some people don't like her. I didn't think anyone would hurt her though."

Tony nods. "Alright. Well, if we don't know who did it, could you at least walk me through what happened? Did you lose your Vector gloves, or how did they end up in Laura's locker?"

"S'posed to be a prank, but it went wrong," Joe mumbles.

"A prank?" Tony asks.

"Sam got confetti'd, but Laura got blasted," Joe mumbles, his face pale. Tony looks confused, so I figure it's time to step up.

"Some people at our school were pulling pranks on each other, so Joe and I decided to replace the energy beams in my gloves with confetti and rig one in Sam's locker and one in Laura's. Sam got confetti blown at him, like expected, but Laura got an energy beam.

"Confetti… and it blew out of the glove? It didn't get stuck or anything?" Tony asks.

"No," I reply, not sure how this is helping with the investigation.

"Well then why didn't I think of that!" Tony exclaims, slapping his forehead. He pulls a notebook out of his pocket and writes "Confetti in Iron Man gloves". When he flips the notebook shut, I realize it says "Awesome Prank Ideas" on the front.

Tony catches me looking and grins. "You're not the only people who have prank wars. Us Avengers need to have fun too sometimes. Of course, Steve just does the same boring pranks over and over again, but Natasha—"

The smile drops off Tony's face and he clamps his mouth shut. He must have been thinking about the pranks that Natasha, superspy, super pranker, and wife of Steve pulled before a mysterious villain killed her thirteen years ago.

"…Anyways, your father," Tony says, pointing to Joe, "is quite the pranker to beat. In fact," Tony pulls out a walkie-talkie, "Bruce?" he calls into it.

"Tony? What's your situation?" Bruce's anxious voice replies.

"Pranktastic!" Tony exclaims. "I think I've found the next generation of Science!Bros.

A loud sigh can be heard from the walkie-talkie. "That's great, Tony. Please remember to stay on task." With that, the walkie-talkie clicks off.

"Spoilsport," Tony grumbles, but he looks a bit more serious now. "So… did you leave the gloves anywhere before the prank… maybe misplace them in a Hydra lab… anything?"

Joe shakes his head. "They were in my room from when we worked on them to the prank. I don't understand…." Joe says miserably.

Tony frowns. "What about at school? Ever notice your backpack feeling lighter… maybe a metal Doctor Octopus arm carrying your gloves away?"

"There was nothing!" Joe exclaims. "My parents are spies. I know how to tell when people are acting suspiciously, and I've got nothing. I have no fucking clue how this happened!"

Tony nods. "Alright, I believe you. I suppose you'll want to check on Laura now, he says, opening the door and gesturing for us to step out of the plane. "We'll keep looking for the suspect. Give us a call if you remember anything helpful."

Joe and I nod, then walk out of the plane. As we walk back to school, the other Avengers join Tony in the plane and take off. Right before the school doors, Joe stops and turns to me. "Do you know how this could have happened? Who could have done it? Because the gloves were with me the whole time, so unless some supervillain snuck into my room and messed with them while I was asleep…."

I'm not the best at comforting people, but Joe could use some cheering up. "Hey, man, don't worry. We'll figure this out and catch the asshole that did this," I say, but all the while, I'm trying to convince myself as well as him.

 **AN: lokilover901: Thanks!**


	8. Things Get Better

**Things Get Better**

 **Joe's POV**

The first thing I do is look for Laura. Some student tells me she's in the nurse's office, so I sprint there. I can't stand the thought of her being hurt. The gloves were with me the whole time. If she's hurt, it's all because of me.

I burst in to the nurse's office, much to the annoyance of the nurse, and find Laura looking a bit weak, but sitting up. When she sees me, she smiles. "Hey, I heard about what happened."

"Laura, I'm so sorry you got hurt. It was all my fault. I don't know who changed the glove, but—"

"It's ok, it's not your fault. Besides, I'll be healed up soon enough with the help of my Jotun healing factor, so you can stop worrying about me."

When I don't respond, Laura rolls her eyes. "Come on, I thought you'd be more excited about winning the prank war."

I just stare at her. How can she be so calm about all this? "…It doesn't feel like much of a victory," I mumble.

Laura's eyes twinkle. "Well then, if you don't feel like you've won, I guess that means the prank war is still on!"

I manage a brief smile. "Yeah, more pranks would be great… or they could get you killed. We still don't know who this person is, or why they attacked you. What if they sabotage more pranks?"

Laura shrugs. "Then we just keep pranking. I'm not going to stop living my life because something bad might happen. Besides, everyone could use some cheering up, and a prank war is the perfect way to do that!"

Despite all the shit that's happened recently, I find myself smiling at Laura's cheerfulness. "Alright, but don't think I'm going to just let you win."

"Wasn't planning on it," Laura grins. "Now stop worrying about me and get back to class!"

But leaving Laura alone is the last thing I want to do. "Laura, I," I mumble, before realizing I'm not sure what I want to say. So instead of saying anything, I take a step forward and give Laura a hug. It's the closest I've ever been to her, besides dancing at Homecoming. She smells like apples for some reason, maybe because of shampoo, or perfume, or some other girly product I don't know about. Or maybe she was just eating an apple? I don't know.

When I pull away, I realize that I also don't know why I hugged her. It was somewhere in between an _I'm so sorry_ hug and a _Let's be romantic_ hug. Laura is looking at me like she wants me to say something, so I come up with the great response of "I care about you."

"I care about you too," Laura whispers. Then she clears her throat. "Which is why you should get going. If the nurse comes in and sees us hugging, you might get in trouble."

"You'd get in trouble too."

"Eh, I'm always in trouble. Now go!"

"Ok, Miss Bossy! Geez, it's almost like you want me to leave," I tease as I walk away.

The rest of the day passes by in a blur of teachers yelling at me to pay attention. Before I know it, I'm stepping off the school bus at my house. I open the door and am greeted by the sound of my parents arguing, as usual. If there was a TV show called "So You Think You Can Yell Louder than a Siren," my parents would be on it.

I quickly close the door until it is only open a crack. Confident that no one saw me, I use my awesome spy skills to stay hidden while listening to what they are arguing about. I don't normally spy on people, but what they're arguing about might change if I want to be here or not. Like, if they found out Laura is my girlfriend and are arguing about how to punish me, then maybe I'll chill at my friend's house for a few.

"…can you be sure? What does S.H.I.E.L.D. even know about him?!" my dad, Hawkeye asks.

"We haven't found anything suspicious, and if Tony trusts him, then I think we should—"

"Well it wasn't Tony whose son almost got blasted!" dad exclaims.

I realize they must be talking about the incident at school… and are suspicious of Noah. Since Noah is my friend, I figure I better stick up for him, so I step inside.

"Joe!" my mom exclaims, running over as soon as she sees me. "I'm so glad you're ok!"

"Tell me everything that happened," my dad says sternly.

I frown. "Dad, I just told Tony everything. Do I really have to do this again?"

"This isn't an interrogation, this is me being a concerned dad. Now, what happened?"

Sighing, I retell what happened. When I finish, dad is frowning as well. "Joe, are you sure Noah had nothing to do with this?"

"Yeah, dad, he's a great friend," I reply.

"Then that means that something more sinister is going on. Only someone with super-speed could have done that, and since Pietro is dead—"

"Clint!" mom exclaims.

"What?!" dad snaps.

"ONLY someone with super-speed?! What about invisibility? Or shrinking? Maybe someone got their hands on Pym-particles and—"

"Well EXCUSE ME for not imagining every possible superpower!" dad grumbles. "I miss the good old days, when people shrinking to the size of ants wasn't a common occurrence!"

Mom glares at dad, then sighs. "The point is, if Noah was the culprit, at least we would know who we are dealing with. Someone who can pull this sort of thing off without the Avengers catching them could become a powerful supervillain. We need to find them and stop them as soon as possible!"

"So it's true. You're the reason we got to ditch class," my goth, thirteen-year-old brother, Ethan, says, walking into the room. "Cool."

"Ethan!" mom exclaims. "What have I told you about the importance of schoolwork?!"

"And having my g… friend get hurt wasn't cool!" I exclaim.

"Oh, I didn't know someone got hurt. Sorry," Ethan says, possibly looking embarrassed, although with his dyed-black bangs covering part of his face, it's hard to tell.

"And what was that about ditching class?!" my father asks sternly.

"… middle school had a lockdown, but there was no danger, so everyone sat around texting."

"Well, you know where you're going to be sitting around, mister? In your room! Now go there! And you better be doing your homework!" mom yells.

"…whatever…." Ethan mutters, not even caring that he's grounded.

My parents wait until they are sure he's in his room, then start talking again. "Joe, I'm sorry you had to go through this," my dad says gently. "It must have been a shock to see Laura get hurt."

I nod, not trusting my voice to be steady enough to speak. My mom clears her throat in a _Go on!_ sort of way.

Dad sighs. "Son, I can see you care about Laura, and she did save your life in the battle with the Frost Giants. Perhaps I was wrong in thinking Laura is evil. That's why, if you still want to, you can go on a date with her. I won't stand in your way."

"Really?!" I exclaim.

My dad nods. "But that doesn't mean you can do whatever you want. There will be rules. You will tell us when and where you plan on being with her, you will be home by midnight, and if we say no to your plans, that means no!"

"Ok," I say, deciding not to bring up that we're already kind of a couple. At least now my parents can give us a ride places. A very awkward ride, but a ride.

I'm so happy as I head upstairs to my room that I almost crash right into my seven-year-old brother, Juni. "Whoa, sorry buddy," I say.

"JOE HAS A GIRLFRIEND! JOE HAS A GIRLFRIEND!" Juni yells.

"…aaand I'm not sorry," I grumble. Apparently, Juni was living up to his Spy Kid namesake by spying on my conversation.

"Well, would you look at that! My little bro has a girlfriend," my eighteen-year-old brother James says, walking over. He didn't need to spy on our conversation to hear Juni's shouting. "Who's the girl?"

"Laura Lakes," I reply. Just saying her name makes me feel good.

"The one who got blasted in the face?" James winces. "Tough luck."

"Yeah," I grumble. "I wish I could blast in the face whoever hurt her."

James nods. "Sounds like you really like her. You know, maybe I could help figure out who did it. I have a lot of friends. Someone must have seen something."

"Really? You'd do that?" I ask.

"Sure, what are big brothers for?"

"Thanks," I reply.

"No problemo, little bro," he says, ruffling my hair in a way that is annoying, yet familiar. It seems like James is finally over whatever grudge he had against me since the fight with Ultron. With James's help searching for the victim, and Laura by my side no matter who is around, we just might be able to stop this mysterious new supervillain!

 **AN: So I came up with a new original supervillain that will hopefully be better than Hysteria from my previous story. Hysteria probably won't be in this story. As for the new supervillain, you'll have to wait and see….**


	9. How to Stump Two Geniuses

**How to Stump Two Geniuses**

 **Noah's POV**

The first thing I do after being interrogated is go back to class. A few students ask me "What happened?", to which I reply "Don't know", and "Omg, what are the Avengers like?" to which I reply "Ok." I don't like being the center of attention, and I definitely don't want people finding out that I'm one of the High School Heroes, so I keep my head down, and hope that people can take a hint.

I keep alert the rest of the day, not sure if something else will go wrong, and am relieved to make it through the school day without any trouble. I then pack up and head to Stark Tower. Tony didn't say anything about my internship being canceled today even though he had a battle and an interrogation to deal with, so I figure that I'm expected to be there. However, after waiting in the lobby for half-an-hour, I start to wonder if I was mistaken. Sure, Mr. Stark is always a solid ten to fifteen minutes late, but half-an-hour is a bit much even for him. Finally, after forty minutes, Tony comes out.

"Hey, sorry about the wait. Fury ordered all the Avengers to have an emergency hologram conference, and when Fury's mad, well, you know how he is."

I don't know how he is, but I nod anyway.

"Anyways, today, we're going to be doing something a little different," Tony says, using a fingerprint/eye scanner combo to unlock access to the secure area we work in. We walk down a hallway to the lab, and my heart sinks to find that, upon entering the lab, my tampered-with glove is sitting next to a computer. I hate looking at the stupid thing after what happened this morning.

"Today, I'm going to show you how to run a fingerprint analysis," Tony says. "S.H.I.E.L.D. wants to run one on the glove anyways, so I might as well show you how. It might be useful to know someday."

"Ok," I reply, standing in front of the machine next to Tony. Tony then explains what he is doing, and lets me help a bit when he's sure I understand. Running fingerprints isn't as exciting as building a robot, in my opinion, but it is useful for catching criminals. Besides, getting paid more than what I made at my factory job for an internship, most of which aren't even paid, is really helpful. Living on my own isn't cheap, after all.

Mr. Stark and I work in silence for a bit, but, as I've come to learn, he can't stay silent for long. "So, S.H.I.E.L.D. can't wait to catch this troublemaker. They can't stand the thought of there possibly being a new supervillain on the loose and them not knowing about it."

I nod. "That would be dangerous."

Tony nods. "That's why S.H.I.E.L.D.'s been looking into you," he says, glancing at me, then returning his attention to the computer.

My mouth goes dry. "Me?" I ask. "I thought you believed me."

Tony sighs. "Well, I do, but some people have other ideas. It would be convenient, after all. 'Robot teen hurts classmate with robot glove'. Nice and neat. No mysterious supervillain to hunt for." Tony rolls his eyes to show he doesn't believe this. "Anyways, the reason I'm telling you this is because S.H.I.E.L.D. decided to look at all the intel they have about you."

"Oh," I reply, unsure where this is going.

"They didn't find anything troubling about you, of course, but then they looked into your family. It seems your mom has some difficulties," he says, looking at me sympathetically.

"Yep," I reply, my cheeks burning. I don't like people to know that my mom is an alcoholic. "And you know this how?"

"Coulson decided it was in my best interest to know. He and Director Fury are the only other people who know."

I just nod, not trusting myself to speak. I'm glad the other Avengers don't know about this, but I wish Tony didn't know either. I don't want people to pity me.

Tony clears his throat. "Noah, I don't usually tell people this, but my dad… well… he wasn't the greatest. I know how hard it can be to not have a supportive family. If you ever need a place to crash, you're welcome to come here."

I nod again, thinking everything from _Finally! Someone who wants me to succeed!_ to _And trade one alcoholic for another? No thanks!_ "Thank you," I reply once I trust myself to speak.

Tony nods. "So then…" he says, changing the topic so quickly that he forgot to think about what he's changing it to. Just then the computer beeps. "The fingerprint scan is done!" Tony exclaims, seeming grateful for something else to talk about. Then he takes a look at the results and frowns.

"What?" I ask, coming over to look. Then I realize the computer didn't detect any fingerprints.

"The suspect must have been wearing gloves," Tony says. "All smart suspects do, of course, but, well, I was hoping this would be easy. I guess not."

"What are you going to do now?" I ask.

"Well, the most likely thing that happened is that someone used Pym particles to shrink down and rewire the gloves without being noticed. After all, Doctor Pym and Antman aren't exactly known for keeping the Pym particle formula safe. I'll have to call them up and test the glove for Pym-particle radiation. If it comes back negative… well, I guess we'll just have to improvise. I mean, to figure out a way to test for invisibility, or super-speed, or teleportation… I don't know if that's possible. I don't even know what power was used."

 _Far away, in a hidden lair, a villain smirks. "How about all of the above?" he says, leaning back in his chair and tossing a piece of popcorn in his mouth._

 _"Not yet, you impatient upstart!" an older man says, smacking the younger villain on the head._

 _"I'll have those powers soon enough," the younger villain replies._

 _"So you say. Just like you said you could get samples from all them in the confusion following the Vector glove blast attacks. And how many do you have?"_

 _"Well, none, but—"_

 _"Exactly! You weren't even able to wire the blasters to both gloves, and the one you did barely worked!"_

 _"That wasn't my fault!" the younger villain whines. "You're instructions weren't clear, so it took me forever!"_

 _"My instructions we're crystal clear!" the older villain retorts. "In fact, I don't think I'm going to help you anymore! You can get those samples on your own!"_

 _"Fine!" the younger villain exclaims, struggling not to get angry. Just then, the picture of Iron Man's lab disappears from the computer screen._

 _"NONONO!" the older villain yells, slamming his fist on the table. "I've spent so much time arguing with you that I wasn't able to keep hacking that Iron Man suit in Tony's lab! Do you know how hard it is to do that? I might never be able to do that again! What do you have to say for yourself?!"_

 _The younger villain shrugs. "I guess there's only one thing to say at a time like this… Hail Hydra!"_

 **AN: Hey, I hope this chapter wasn't too sad/ confusing. Well, except for the part at the end, which will make more sense in time. Also, there is no real science in this chapter. I don't know much about how police check for fingerprints, hacking Iron Man suits, or if imaginary Pym particles have radiation, I just make the science bits up.**


	10. Dates and Drama

**Dates and Drama**

 **Laura's POV**

I wake up feeling refreshed. Nothing like a good night's sleep and a Jotun healing factor to cure a concussion! Then I look my mirror and realize I'm in my Jotun form as well.

I have a brief moment of panic before remembering that I can change whenever I want, that it's up to me. I decide to just look at my reflection for a few minutes, running a hand over the rough ridges of my face, feeling the iciness of my body. I never really thought of it as my body before, more like a body I was cursed to get stuck in, like Princess Fiona from Shrek getting stuck as an ogre after the sun goes down. Yet now that I think about it, turning into a Jotun is kind of cool, pun intended. I mean, who else can just turn into an alien whenever they feel like it?

Still, people might get confused if I show up to school in this form, so I think about feeling warm, which reminds me of Joe's warm hug yesterday, and I feel my body thawing back to human form. I then trade my pj's for my school cloths and head downstairs.

"Morning, mom," I say as I pass her in the kitchen.

"Laura! You're surprisingly chipper," mom remarks, balancing a cup of coffee and a plate with toast in one hand while holding her phone up to her ear with the other. "Are you sure you're feeling alright?" she asks, biting her lip. "The school nurse said that, after a concussion—"

"I'm fine, mom. Are you?" I ask, looking pointedly at her phone.

"Huh? Oh, yes, I'm just on hold with the credit card company. Go ahead and make your own breakfast," mom says, setting down her dishes at the table.

I eat some cereal, then head outside to catch the bus. "Have fun at school, sweetie!" my mom calls after me, then immediately starts saying a string of numbers that must have something to do with her credit card.

As I step off the school bus, I can't help feeling a bit nervous. What if something bad is going to happen today as well? I try to push the thought out of my head, the way I did yesterday when talking to Joe in the nurse's office. Joe seemed scared for my safety, which was really sweet, but also made me feel bad for worrying him, so I did my best to cheer him up. If only I believed my own cheerfulness.

I'm so worried about what could go wrong that I don't realize something already is. "Hey!" I yell, as someone plucks a hair off of my head. I turn around to yell at the person, but he is already sprinting away. All I see is that he is wearing a hoodie and jeans and seems about my age.

I consider running after him, but decide not to. After all, it's just a hair. What harm can it do? I just wonder why the guy wanted it. Maybe he got dared to, or has a crush on me or something, who knows? Shrugging, I head inside for class.

As I head to my locker, I run into Joe, who looks much happier than he did yesterday. "Guess what?" Joe exclaims.

"What?" I ask.

"My dad doesn't mind me dating you!"

"That's great!" I exclaim. "I'm so happy we can finally be ourselves around everyone."

"Me too!" Joe exclaims. "Also, my brother James is looking into what happened yesterday. He's really popular, so if anyone in the school knows what happened, he'll hear about it. Also, he learned some basic spy skills from my parents, like how to tell if people are lying."

"That's great," I reply. Just then, the bell rings. "See you later, boyfriend," I reply. Before I can stop to think about what I'm doing, I give him a quick peck on the cheek, laughing at Joe's stunned face as I walk off to class.

I'm feeling better than I have in a long time. That's why I decide to slip a little something into Joe's locker so that he'll feel the same….

"AAAH!" Joe yells after class, when he opens his locker to reveal a huge spider! After watching the spider for a few seconds and realizing it's not moving, however, Joe cautiously bumps it with a binder held at arm's length away. When it still doesn't move, Joe rolls his eyes, and picks it up. "A rubber spider? Really, Laura?"

I giggle as I emerge from my hiding place. "Come on, it's a classic. You can't tell me you use whoopee cushions but not fake bugs?"

Joe smiles. "Guilty as charged. I just didn't expect a prank right after you kissed me."

"Excuses, excuses," I say, but I'm probably blushing.

The rest of the school day goes by without any problems. I'm starting to think the glove incident was a one-time thing, when Anne comes up to me looking terrified!

"What happened" I ask, immediately alert.

"Nothing bad," Anne assures me quickly although her face says otherwise. "It's just… Liberty isn't able to babysit Sam's sister tonight, so she asked if I could do it, and I said yes!" Anne exclaims. "I don't know why I said yes. I've never babysat before in my life! What do children even do? What if I get mad and Hulk out?"

"You'll do fine," I reply, relieved that this is all Anne is worried about. "Sam just has one sister, Sarah, right? I'm sure you can manage one kid."

"I don't know," Anne replies, not looking convinced. "Would you… maybe… be interested in helping me? I'd feel a lot better, and Liberty said Sarah's bedtime is eight, so we would have some time to hang out before Thor and Jane come back at ten."

"Sure," I reply. "I don't have any experience babysitting either, but with the two of us, what could go wrong?"

If only I knew what was about to happen….


	11. How not to Babysit

**How Not to Babysit**

 **Laura's POV**

"So, Thor, Sam, and I will be attending a royal event on Asgard this evening," Jane explains to Anne and I as we pull in the driveway to her house. "I left some of Sarah's favorite toys in the living room, but she is welcome to play with her other toys as well. I promised Sarah she could stay up an extra half-hour tonight, but try to start winding things down at eight, and make sure she brushes her teeth before bed. I'll pay you and Anne twenty dollars each, plus some extra money to buy a pizza for dinner. Oh, and if Sarah starts missing us, you can always sing the happy tune to Mr. Fluffy, her teddy bear. That always calms her down. And if she says she isn't sleepy—"

"Worry not, Lady Jane! Sarah is in good hands," Thor says, smiling at us. I'm still glad that Thor is surprisingly nice to me. You'd think he'd hate me, being the daughter of Loki and all, but I guess he's learned to look past that, or he just really wants to get along with some of his family members. Sam, on the other hand, is looking annoyed, like he can't wait to get away from us.

"Now, let us make haste to the royal ceremony!" Thor bellows, grinning at Sam. Sam gets a smug look on his face, and I can't help but wonder why. Sam had his eighteenth birthday party like, two months ago. They wouldn't just be celebrating that now on Asgard, would they?

"HEIMDALL, OPEN THE BIFROST!" Thor yells. Immediately, a rainbow light appears and zaps the three of them away, leaving a strange Asgardian symbol burning in the grass. Looking around, I see other scorch marks nearby, some looking recent, others faded or getting covered by grass. I can't help but wonder what Thor's neighbors think about all his yelling and yard eyesores.

Just then, Sarah comes out of the house yelling "SUPER ELSA! SUPER ELSA! YAAAAAY!" and runs up to me and hugs my legs.

"It's nice to see you too, Sarah," I reply, bending over to hug the six-year-old back. I can't help but wonder when she nicknamed me Super Elsa, and if she's going to keep calling me that.

Sarah then notices Anne and tries to hide behind my leg. "It's ok," I coax her. "This is Anne. She's my friend."

"Hello," Anne says shyly.

Sarah's eyes grow huge. "Anna? ANNA! IT'S ANNA AND SUPER-ELSA! YAY!" she yells, running in a circle around us, then into the house.

I laugh. "Come on, 'Anna', we'd better keep Sarah out of trouble." The two of us follow Sarah into the house, where we find her putting her _Frozen_ DVD into the DVD player. Anne and I join Sarah on the couch and prepare for an hour of singing cartoons.

The evening ends up passing quickly in a blur of board games, pizza, and toys. I feel a bit childish at times for playing such immature games, but it's fun overall. Then Sarah yawns, and I realize it's eight-fifteen. "Looks like it's your bedtime," I say.

"No," Sarah pouts, but stubborn face soon breaks out into another yawn.

"Come on, silly goose, time for bed," I tease, heading to the stairs, and making sure Sarah follows me. Unfortunately, she doesn't.

"Laura, shouldn't we put the games away first?" Anne asks. Looking back, I stifle a groan as I realize that there are still board games all over the floor. Sarah kept impatiently jumping from board game to board game, saying she'd put them away later, but here they are still. I don't think Thor and Jane would be happy to come home and see their living room covered in board games, but I don't know where they go, so I come up with a plan.

"Ok, Sarah, tell you what, you can stay up a little longer, but only if you agree to play… The Racing Game."

"The Racing Game? What's that?" Sarah asks, looking eager and awake now.

"Why, it is only the greatest racing game ever!" I reply. It's where the three of us race to put away these board games!"

"That's not fun, that's a chore!" Sarah whines.

Fighting a sigh, I add, "Well, the winner also gets the awesome prizes of… um…." I mumble, out of ideas.

"Ice cream and a bedtime story," Anne supplies.

"Yes, those will be the prizes," I agree. "So, what do you say?"

Sarah doesn't say anything. She starts slowly walking over to the pile of games… then suddenly grabs one and starts running away!

"Very sneaky!" I call after her, picking up a game as well and hurrying to keep up with her. I'm going to let her win of course, but I'll at least pretend it's an actual race.

I follow Sarah as she goes two rooms over and opens a closet door to reveal more games. Sarah puts the game she is holding back on the shelf and sprints away to get more. "Nanananana, you can't catch me!" Sarah teases as she sprints past.

"I bet I can!" I tease back, sprinting back to the living room as well. I'm almost back to the pile of games, when I hear a _CRUNCH!_ sound. Looking down, I realize that I have stepped on and broken some sort of DVD.

"What was that?" Sarah asks, running over, just as I flip the DVD over to reveal that the two broken halves say "Frozen".

Shit! "I'm really sorry Sarah," I say, watching as Sarah's eyes grow larger and larger. Then she starts crying.

"WAAAAAAAH!" Sarah yells.

"It'll be ok, I'll tell Jane what happened, and she can get you a new DVD, ok?" I coax, raising my voice a bit so Sarah can hear me over her crying and a rumble of thunder outside.

"I DON'T WANT A NEW DVD! I WANT THIS ONE, BUT YOU BROKE IT!"

Suddenly, there is a bright light, and my body feels like it's burning all over! Then the light subsides, and with it, the pain. It takes my dazed mind a moment to realize I've just been struck by lightning!

I hear Anne screaming my name, and Sarah just screaming, when another lightning bolt strikes! I vaguely recall hearing lightning never strikes the same place twice, but apparently this lightning didn't get the memo, because it strikes the DVD player right next to me that we lazily left on, causing it to turn off… along with all the lights in the house… and the house across the street.

Turning back to the situation at hand, I notice that Anne's face is turning green! My dazed, lightning stricken brain struggles to figure out why. I mean, the storm should be moving away soon, and Sarah will be all cried out in a few minutes.

Then it hits me. Lightning never strikes the same place twice… unless Thor is aiming it at a target… or Sam… or Sarah! Sarah must have inherited Thor's lightning powers, and they emerged for the first time now, in the middle of a temper tantrum, with only us inexperienced babysitters around to help!

You know when I said babysitting was easy? Yeah… I take that back.


	12. First-World Problems vs Asgardian Probs

**First-World Problems vs. Asgardian Problems**

 **Laura's POV**

The first thing I do is check on Anne. After all, handling one super-powered temper tantrum will be hard enough. Anne's face is still looking dangerously green, so I decide to help her calm down. "Anne, it's alright. I'm ok, see?" I say, goofily twirling around in circle to prove I'm not hurt. "Tada!"

Anne nods, but doesn't reply, taking some deep breaths instead. Since it seems like she's alright, just in need of some time to calm down, I turn my attention to Sarah instead.

Sarah seems to be calming down, as she is now looking more confused than angry. She looks at the now-smoking DVD player, then at me, then at the DVD player, then at me… then starts crying.

"WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!" Sarah cries.

"It's ok," I try to soothe her. "We know you didn't mean to do that," I say, glancing at Anne for support, but she is still focusing on staying calm. "Here, tell you what," I say, turning back to Sarah, "why don't we go to the kitchen and get you some ice-cream? You can eat ice-cream, I'll call your parents, and—"

"NO!" Sarah yells, then runs away!

"Sarah, come back!" I call, chasing after her. However, Sarah is quite fast, and soon runs out the door and onto the street! I know she could use some time to calm down, but I don't want to leave her alone outside, so I teleport myself to in front of where she is on the sidewalk, causing Sarah to gasp and turn around and sprint the other way.

"We're not going to punish you," I say, once again teleporting in front of her, "We just want to make sure you're safe."

"GO AWAY!" Sarah yells, crying as she turns around again and runs down the sidewalk. As I watch, the sky starts to rain, but only right around Sarah! As she continues to run, the rain moves with her! I don't recall Thor or Sam having any rain powers. That could just be because they're "too manly to cry"… or maybe Sarah has stronger weather powers than them, like that X-Men, Storm, who can control the weather. Whatever the case, this really makes me want to get Sarah back inside the house. Some person is bound to notice the strange Sarah-related weather, and that would be hard to explain. Yet Sarah doesn't want to go home.

Changing tactics, I decide to let Sarah get away and calm down, while secretly following her to make sure she stays safe. I wait until she is almost out of sight, then teleport to behind a tree she just passed. The next time she is almost out of sight, I teleport to behind a house, then a doghouse, then a dumpster.

As I follow Sarah, I can't help but notice how all the houses I pass don't have lights on. It seems like Sarah's lightning bolt caused a neighborhood-wide power-outage. I can't help but wonder what Thor and Jane will think when they get home. It makes me think of those "First-world vs. Third-world Problems" memes on the internet, only in this case, it's First-World vs. Asgardian Problems. Like, a first world problem is: _Mom: "I get so embarrassed when my child has a temper-tantrum_ , whereas an Asgardian problem is: _Mom: "I get so embarrassed when my child has a temper-tantrum that knocks out power to the whole city."_

At the next intersection, instead of going straight, Sarah turns left. Since I can't see around the corner, I can't teleport, and have to slowly walk around the corner instead. Then Sarah screams, and I sprint around the corner and discover some teenager in a hoodie is standing next to her! My foot crunches on a leaf and the stranger turns around and glances at me, his hood down too low for me to get a good look at his face, before he sprints away.

"Are you ok?" I ask, running over to Sarah.

Sarah nods. "H-He pulled my hair, but he's gone now."

"Pulled your hair?" I remember this morning, when some teen in a hoodie plucked a hair off my head and I thought it was no big deal. Come to think of it, this looked like the same guy, just in a different outfit. But what would he want people's hair for? I mean, people can't actually make a Polyjuice Potion like in Harry Potter… but hair does have DNA, and could maybe be used to clone someone? I'm a bit sketchy on how cloning works (it shows how much, or rather, little attention I pay in science class…), but maybe some mad-scientist supervillain is trying to clone people?

Sarah's crying snaps me out of my worrying. "I want to go HOOOOOME!" Sarah wails, causing a boom of thunder and more Sarah-targeting rain.

"Ok," I reply, giving her a hug and guiding her towards her house. Sarah leans against me as we walk, causing the rain to fall on me as well as her, but I don't mind. As we get closer to the house, the rain slows, and gradually stops.

"I'm sorry for lightning-ing you," Sarah mumbles into my arm when we are just a block away from her house.

"It's ok, I forgive you," I reply, giving her shoulder a squeeze.

"Do you think mommy and daddy will be mad?" Sarah asks.

"No, they love you, and I'll explain that it was an accident. I'm sure your daddy would love to teach you how to use your powers."

"Really?" Sarah asks, her eyes sparkling.

"Of course!" I exclaim, trying to stay cheerful despite the lump in my throat. I can't help but wish I had parents who could teach me to use my powers, can't help but think about the one time that Loki did, in the middle of a battle against our own relatives, about how Odin sent him to jail right afterwards, about how it isn't fair that Sarah's dad is a superhero and mine is a supervillain.

Then we turn the corner onto Sarah's street, and I see Thor standing in the front yard. "DADDY!" Sarah yells, running over to Thor and hugging him.

"Sarah!" Thor exclaimed. "I hath been worried for thee! Lady Anne hath said you ran away, and was calling the Avengers. If only the telephones of cell worked on Asgard, we would have been home sooner! Now, speak! What hath happened?"

Sarah hides behind my leg, causing Thor to look expectantly at me. I clear my throat, then start the long explanation that is in order….

 _In an evil lair of undisclosed location, an aging villain reads a book in silence. Suddenly, the door bursts open, and a teenage villain in a hoodie and jeans darts in. "I got it!" he yells. "A hair from the teleporter and the electric gi—dude."_

 _"Well, it's about time!" the older villain huffs, closing his book with a SLAM! "Let me see the samples."_

 _The younger villain pulls two Ziploc bags out of his hoodie, one with a black hair in it, the other blond._

 _"Hmm…" the older man says, examining the hairs with his spectacles. "Yes, these will do."_

 _"SWEET! I'M GONNA HAVE POWERS!" the teenage villain exclaims, fist-pumping the air. "How long 'till it's ready, Science Dude?"_

 _"FOR THE LAST TIME, MY NAME IS DOCTOR KRAUS!" the man yells. "As for the DNA samples, they should be ready in a few days. The power testing can begin then. In the meantime, I expect you to get the other samples—"_

 _"But Doctor Kraus—"_

 _"Is that an excuse I hear?! Do you want me to choose someone else for this program?!"_

 _The teen hangs his head in defeat. "No, sir."_

 _"THEN GET ME THOSE SAMPLES!"_

 _The teen straightens to attention. "Yes sir!"_


	13. Spies and Sour Faces

**Spies and Sour Faces**

 **Laura's POV**

After my epic fail babysitting, I can't help but worry another supervillain will attack, or Sarah will cause a tornado or something, so I am pleasantly surprised when nothing happens. Thor isn't mad at me, Sarah manages not to cause any more severe weather, and the rest of the week and Thanksgiving Break remain supervillain free. It isn't until Monday that something interesting happens.

"Hey, Laura!" Joe calls, walking towards me as I pull the supplies for my next class out of my locker.

"What's up?" I reply, turning around to face him.

"We might have found something about the glove attack," Joe replies.

"'We'?" I question.

"Yep!" another guy exclaims, walking up to me and grinning an overly-white smile. I can't help but feel like I've seen him before. Something about his outfit, or the way he moves—

"My little bro asked me to help find the guy who guy who hurt you," the guy says, gesturing to Joe, "and I found something."

Oh, duh! This guy is James, Joe's older brother. He drove us to Homecoming. How could I forget that? "What did you find out?" I ask.

"There's a senior named Dylan who's head of the robotics team. He likes to prank people, sometimes crossing lines to do so. Remember when someone pulled the fire alarm earlier this year and never got caught?"

"Yeah," I reply. Then I frown. "Wait, that was Dylan?"

"Yep," James replies. "And now, rumor has it, Dylan was behind the glove prank as well."

"Wait, a rumor?" Joe questions. "So you don't know for sure?"

James shrugs. "No, but everyone at the party I went to thought so. Someone even saw him acting suspicious that day, being all nervous and whatnot."

Joe rolls his eyes. "Well, bro, I was hoping you'd have more than a rumor, but it's better than nothing. We'll check it out."

"Glad I didn't waste my time telling you," James teases, lightly punching Joe's arm before walking away. I just stare at the two of them, amazed at how weird siblings are, and debating if I should be jealous or glad that I don't have any. Then I notice Joe has on his Determined Face that he gets when trying to protect me. "If Dylan did this and goes to our school, he could do something like this again anytime! And that combined with the hair thing… we need to call the Avengers."

"Ok guys, so here's the deal," Liberty says, one call to the Avengers later. We are standing on the old, unused field outside the school that we use for our power-training meetings, only this isn't power training, it's an emergency meeting that Liberty called. "I just texted my dad about the new suspect in the Vector Glove case, and… is something funny?"

Everyone turns to look at Sam, who has started chuckling.

"Yeah. You said you texted your dad, but everyone knows he doesn't know how to text!"

Liberty glares at Sam. "Of course he can text! He may have come from the forties, but that doesn't mean he can't learn. And that wasn't funny!" Liberty exclaims as Sam keeps laughing. "What if I made fun of your dad for the way he talks?"

Sam shrugs. "I don't give a shit. He just made me king, so who cares how he talks?"

At this, everyone looks surprised, except for Liberty, who just looks mad.

"Yep," Sam says smugly. "Thor declared me next in line while the Clueless Crew were babysitting my sister. Asgard threw me a huge party. It was awesome."

I can't help feeling annoyed by how smug Sam is about this, as well as how he called Anne and I "The Clueless Crew". But I'm not the only one who's mad.

"You know, you CAN stop bragging once in a while. It won't kill you," Liberty says in full sarcasm mode.

"And here you go, bossing me around again!" Sam complains. "Let me guess, you're going to tell me to shut up, and that S.H.I.E.L.D. is looking for suspects and doesn't want us to get in the way, and you're too much of a goody-two-shoes to disobey orders, so you're not going to!"

"Actually, yes, S.H.I.E.L.D. DID say not to interfere, but I'm going to anyways! It's not ok for students like Laura to get hurt," Liberty says, glancing at me briefly with a look that's… not exactly friendly, but concerned, the way a superhero looks when trying to protect ordinary citizens. "That's why Joe and I are going to investigate Dylan."

"Huh?" Joe asks, apparently surprised by this news.

"You're investigating with Joe?! But I'm your boyfriend!" Sam whines.

"You WERE my boyfriend!" Liberty corrects. "And people don't go on investigations because they're dating, they investigate because they know what they're doing. Joe and I are the only people in this group skilled at espionage, so we're taking this mission."

"I know Joe's got skills, but you, Miss Perfect, spying on people?" Sam mocks. Then his eyes get huge. "Wait a minute, WAS your boyfriend?!"

Liberty crosses her arms angrily. "In case you've forgotten, my mom is Black Widow, the definitely-not-perfect spy. Dad taught me some of the spy skills he learned from her before she passed. And yes, Sam, I'm breaking up with you. Come on, Joe!" Liberty exclaims, grabbing Joe's arm and practically dragging my bewildered boyfriend away to find Dylan.

I don't know who to feel sorry for; Liberty, because Sam was making fun of her, Sam, because Liberty rudely broke up with him, or Joe, because, being Sam's best friend and Liberty's spy-mate, he's kind of stuck in the middle of it. All I know is they better figure out this Dylan thing soon, because I want my boyfriend back!


	14. Dead Ends and Mean Friends

**Dead Ends and Mean Friends**

 **Liberty's POV**

I stomp away from my teammates, away from stupid Sam, who thinks he's so great that he can just—

"Hey! Watch it with the super strength!" Joe exclaims.

"Sorry," I reply, releasing my hold on Joe's wrist. I had been so mad at Sam that I didn't realize I was still dragging Joe along with me, or that my anger was causing me to grip his wrist harder than a normal girl my age.

"Are you ok?" Joe asks.

"I'm fine," I sigh. "I've just been busy lately. Let's just find Dylan."

Being busy lately is an understatement! Since I'm one of only two members in the High School Heroes that is used to talking to reporters, and Sam isn't exactly known for having a way with words, I end up doing all the interviews regarding our team. Every word I say has to be perfect, because if it's not, reporters will find a way to twist it into catchy but lie-filled front page news. Even when I'm not doing an interview, I always have to be on guard, because if I'm late to a fight against supervillains, or even just having a bad hair day, the whole world is going to know.

I've been somewhat of a celebrity ever since I was three. That was when my mom, Black Widow passed away, and the reporters came to interview my dad, Steve Rogers, who wasn't ashamed to shed a few tears for the woman that he loved, and me, the little girl who wouldn't stop crying. Ever since then, the pressure has been on for me to live up to my parents' legacy.

I pause for a moment to review the plan I thought up earlier, wondering if my mom would approve of it. "Follow my lead," I say to Joe, when I'm confident the plan will work. With that, I push open the door to the classroom.

A friend of James told him where Dylan has study hall this period, and I am relieved to find a guy who fits Dylan's description setting his things down on a nearby desk. That's one less thing to worry about. Now to start the interrogation.

I make a show of looking around for a bit, hoping Dylan will notice. He doesn't seem to be paying us much attention, but it can't hurt to be cautious. Out of the corner of my eye, I see Joe looking around as well. It seems like this will go alright.

When I've looked around for as long as I'd expect a student under the circumstances I'm about to explain would, I walk over to Dylan. "Excuse me," I ask, coming to a stop in front of his desk, "do you know where Mrs. Abbey is? She said she'd be here with some papers for us to grade."

Dylan frowns. "Nope, I haven't seen her, sorry."

"That's strange, I wonder if I'm in the wrong classroom? I could have sworn Mrs. Abbey told us student counsel members to go to room 120 to help with grading. Hmm….." I trail off, looking around as though for clues as to whether or not this is the right classroom. Then I allow a surprised look to come over my face, as though I've just realized something. "Wait a minute, are you Dylan Daniels?"

"Yep, that's me. And you're Liberty Rogers," Dylan replies.

"Yes," I reply, making sure my face doesn't show how much his response bothers me. I always get a bit annoyed when strangers know so much about me. I suppose I should expect it by now, being a celebrity and all, but I've never quite come to terms with it. In this particular conversation, it also worries me. What if Dylan already knows this is an interrogation just because I'm here? Should I have sent Joe to interrogate him alone, since Joe actually has a secret identity?

Oh well, it's too late to change my mind now. "I remember hearing your name on the announcements a few times. You're the leader of the robotics club, right?" I ask.

"I sure am," Dylan replies. "We just won a robotics competition recently, which is probably why you heard about us."

"That's great!" I reply. Then I sigh, allowing an anxious look to come over my face. "Well, I'd better go look for those papers, or else I won't have them graded before the end of this class period. It was nice to meet you," I smile, then walk away to fake looking for papers. Out of the corner of my eye, however, I watch Joe to make sure he is continuing the investigation.

"Hey, that's cool that you're into robotics. I like robotics as well." Joe comments.

"Oh yeah? You should join our club," Dylan replies, leaning forward on his desk in a casual manner.

Joe shrugs. "Yeah, that would be cool, but I'm kinda busy right now. Between sports, videogames, and pranking, I don't really have time for another club."

"Videogames and pranking are clubs now? Since when?" Dylan chuckles. "Nah, I'm just messing with you. What kind of videogames do you play?"

Joe shrugs. "Skyrim, or my brother's videogames when he's not around." Joe frowns. "'Course, I haven't had much time to play lately 'cause I've been spending all my time thinking up pranks for the prank war. My girlfriend and I are having a contest to see who can pull the best pranks," Joe explains. You wouldn't happen to have any cool prank ideas, would you, because I'm all out of them!"

Dylan shakes his head. "Not unless programming a robot to say dirty words counts."

Joe snorts. "You did that?"

"Yep," Dylan replies.

"Have you done any other cool robot pranks?"

Internally, I slap myself. Joe is being way too obvious. Dylan is going to figure out what's going on.

"Nope, that was it," Dylan replies. Then he frowns. "Wait a sec, wasn't that your girlfriend that got hurt by that malfunctioning robot glove? You don't think I did that, do you?" Then he looks over at me and his eyes widen. "You do think I did it, don't you? That's why she's here!"

Other students are turning to look at us now, making the whole process harder. "Why don't we step out in the hallway?" I coax, hoping that Dylan won't put up a fuss, because he would just be embarrassing himself. To my relief, Dylan and Joe quietly follow me out into the hall.

"So, what, you're going to beat me up just because I might have messed with some robot gloves because I'm on the robotics team?!" Dylan yells, trying to sound tough, but I can tell he's really just scared. "If I knew how to build Iron Man gloves, don't you think I'd be a billionaire by now?!"

I sigh. "Look, here are the facts. We have evidence that suggests you pulled the school's fire alarm, and if you are willing to break that rule, perhaps you are willing to break others."

Dylan pales. "Shit! I didn't think anyone knew about that."

"So you did pull the fire alarm. Did you think that was funny?"

"No!" Dylan exclaims. "I was trying to help a friend get out of class, but it didn't even work. Sure, I didn't get caught, but the whole thing was stupid. I'm not going to do that again, and I would never hurt anyone!"

Joe and I share a look, and in that look, I know we agree. "Thank you for your cooperation. You can go back to study hall now," I say, in my best imitation of my mom.

Dylan looks confused. "So… you're not going to beat me up?"

"Of course not!" I exclaim. "I also won't tell anyone you pulled the fire alarm as long as you promise never to do it again."

"I promise," Dylan agrees.

"Ok, then you're good to go." I wait until Dylan has closed the door to his classroom before turning to Joe. "So, when did you realize Dylan was telling the truth?"

Joe shrugs. "I dunno, it was just a feeling."

I nod. "You have good basic spy instincts, but could use some more training. The reason I knew Dylan was telling the truth was his facial expressions. There are slight differences in a person's face if they are lying or telling the truth. That is probably what you noticed, you just didn't realize it."

Joe nods. "I'll keep that in mind."

I nod as well. "I'm glad we didn't have to fight another supervillain in the middle of school, but I just wish this interrogation lead somewhere. Now we're back to square one."

Joe and I just stand there for a moment, letting that sink in. Then I sigh. "Come on, we'd better go tell the others." I text the others to meet us at the cafeteria after the class period ends, since lunch is over, so no one else will be there. After finishing up the class period in my own class, where I get yelled at for being late, I arrive at the cafeteria expecting everyone to listen while I break the news. Instead, I am surprised to find Laura and Sam having a fist fight in the middle of the cafeteria! As I watch, Sam tries to punch Laura, but Laura teleports behind him and knocks Sam's legs out from under him!

"BREAK IT UP, YOU TWO!" I yell, standing between them to prevent them from hurting each other, all the while wondering how this fight started. I know Sam and Laura have never been very friendly towards each other, but they usually just ignored each other. What caused them to get into a fight?

 **AN: Next chapter will answer this question. Anyways, what do you think of this story so far? I know that lokilover901 liked at least the beginning of this story, and PotterAvenge-X Kane thought the Sarah with superpowers idea was interesting, but what do you guys think?**

 **Also, I think this is about the halfway point of the story, but since I haven't written any chapters past this one, it's hard to know for sure. My goal back in December was to finish this story by the time school lets out in May, but considering it's already April and I'm only about halfway done, I might not finish until sometime this summer.**


	15. The Next Generation of Problems

**The Next Generation of Problems**

 **Laura's POV**

When Liberty dragged Joe away to go interrogate some Dylan guy, I couldn't help but feel jealous. I mean, Joe is MY boyfriend! I don't want Liberty to be able to boss him around like she's his girlfriend. All throughout the next class period, I end up worrying that Joe will get hurt because Dylan is a supervillain, or that random students will get hurt, or that Joe will suddenly realize what I've already known: that Liberty is prettier than me, and he'll start dating her instead. So I'm already in a bad mood when I enter the cafeteria and am forced to interact with Sam.

"Oh great, you're here," Sam grumbles.

I frown. "Yeah. We ARE on the same team you know. What's your problem?"

"My problem is that your dad is stupid!" Sam huffs.

"You just noticed?" I retort, trying not to get too angry. Even though my dad is a supervillain, I don't like people making fun of him, because he is my dad. Still, I figure Sam is just angry because his girlfriend broke up with him. No need to start a fight.

"If my girlfriend chooses you to go on a mission instead of me, you're going to get it!"

"If this is about Liberty choosing Joe to interrogate Dylan instead of you, that's just because they both know have spy skills—"

"DON'T EXPLAIN THINGS I KNOW!" Sam yells, his fist zipping towards me! Before I really think about what I'm doing, I teleport behind Sam and knock his feet out from under him, then sprint away before he can get back up. Sam gets up quicker than I expect though, and comes charging towards me, but is stopped by Liberty.

"BREAK IT UP, YOU TWO!" Liberty yells, stepping between us. Sam tries to swipe a punch at me to the side of Liberty, but Liberty holds up a heavy textbook like a shield, which blocks Sam's punch, but now has a fist-shaped hole in it due to Sam's super strength.

"Will you two please stop fighting before you ruin all of my textbooks?" Liberty exclaims.

"No one cares about your stupid textbooks," Sam grumbles, but he stops trying to hit me.

"Laura? What's going on?" Joe asks, entering the room with Noah and Anne.

"Sam's being an asshole!" I exclaim, moving further away from Sam. I know he's having a bad day, but trying to punch me is WAY overreacting! I am pissed off!

"At least I don't think I'm so great like you! 'Hi, I'm Laura. I'm so sneaky because I can teleport all over the place and pull pranks and never get caught!'" Sam mocks.

"Well at least I'm not as dumb as a brick like you and Thor!" I exclaim.

Sam tries to punch me again, but Liberty intercepts it with another textbook. "THAT'S IT!" Liberty yells. "Sam, go stand in the hall!"

"But…!" Sam exclaims, looking around for someone to support him, but no one does. "Fine!" he grumbles, stomping off to the hall.

"I'll catch you up later," Joe says to Sam, who just nods at him in response.

"Are you ok?" Anne asks me, once Sam is in the hall.

I nod. "Yeah."

"What was that about?" Liberty asks.

I shrug. "Something about my dad."

Liberty frowns. "You've proven to us that you're not like him. Sam shouldn't be treating you like that," Liberty says, as though the topic is closed from discussion. It's the first time Liberty has really made me feel like part of the team. If only it were under different circumstances.

"I would talk to Sam about this later," Liberty continues, but I don't think he wants to talk to me. Joe, maybe you'd have better luck?"

Joe nods.

Liberty sighs. "I'm afraid the reason I called you here is for more bad news: Dylan is not the person who rigged the glove."

"Isn't that good news?" Anne asks. "Maybe the person doesn't go to our school, so it won't happen again."

"Maybe," Liberty replies, "or maybe not. We have no other leads. Even the Avengers don't know anything."

"We'll just have to keep looking," Joe says. "Until then, let's power train our hearts out!"

"Let's keep practicing," Liberty agrees, and with that, the meeting breaks up. I make sure to steer clear of Sam as I walk to class, not sure what kind of mood he will be in. Sam doesn't attack me again, and it isn't long before I step off the bus from school and start on my homework. I'm not in a good enough mood to think up more prank ideas, so homework it is.

Just then, my mom walks into me room with the phone in her hand. "Laura? A lady named Jane is asking for you. She says she's one of your friends' parents?"

"Yeah, I know her," I reply, nervously taking the phone from my mom. Did Jane call to yell at me for fighting her son?

"Hello?" I say nervously into the phone as my mom walks away.

"Hi Laura, it's Jane. Thanks again for taking such good care of Sarah while she struggled with her powers."

"You're welcome," I reply, caught off-guard.

Jane pauses, then "Is everything alright between you and Sam? He seemed rather angry at you when he got home from school, then he shut himself in his room."

"Well…" I consider lying, but remember how much trouble that got me in before, so I tell her what happened. When I finish, Jane is silent for a moment, then she says "Let me go talk to Sam," and hangs up. I can't tell if she's mad at me for fighting back or not, which worries me.

I have just started doing my homework, when the phone rings again. "Laura!" Thor's voice booms through the phone. "My son hath something to say to you."

"I'm sorry," Sam mumbles.

"About?" I can hear Thor say in the background.

"I am sorry for trying to punch you," Sam grumbles, clearly just apologizing because his dad is making him.

"Good," Thor says in the background. There is some shuffling of the phone, then Thor's voice comes booming back.

"Lady Jane, Sam, Sarah and I will embark on a camping trip to the southern land of Carolina over the break of winter. Would you care to join us?"

It takes me a moment to realize Thor is inviting me to go camping with his family in South Carolina. "So… it's just a normal camping trip? No fighting monsters or supervillains?" I ask.

Thor laughs. "Nay, it is just a normal camping trip at a place where Sarah can practice her powers without mortals noticing. You seem to have a way of calming her down. Perhaps you would like to join us as a fellow Odinson? Your mother is welcome as well."

"Uh, sure let me just ask her," I reply, my gut clenching as I think about how awkward this will be.

"Hey, mom?" I yell down the hall.

"What?" my mom asks, coming towards me.

"SoThorandhisfamilyaregoingcampingoverwinterbreakandThorwaswonderingifI'dwanttocomesincehe'smyuncleandstuffanddoyouwanttogo?" I blurt out, hoping to get this awkwardness over as quickly as possible.

It takes my mom a moment to realize what I've said. "Thor invited you on a camping trip? Well that was nice of him. Where are you going?"

"South Carolina," I reply, surprised that my mom doesn't seem to mind the idea. "They invited you as well."

My mom frowns. "Sorry Laura, I'm afraid it's too late for me to call off work so close to the holidays."

"That's ok," I reply, expecting her to say that. It probably is too late for her to call off work, but even if it wasn't, she probably still wouldn't go. Mom seems kind of afraid of the Avengers for some reason, like they might beat her up because she dated Loki. Oh well. I don't want to go anyways. Spend a whole week with dumb Thor and annoying Sam? No thanks!

"You're welcome to go though," mom continues. "It sounds like a great opportunity to get to know your extended family."

"Yeah, great," I echo, thinking it's the opposite of great. "Would you like to meet them before I go?" I ask, as a last hope that I won't have to go. Mom always likes to meet my friends before I go places with them. Maybe if she's too afraid to talk to Thor, she won't make me go.

To my surprise, my mom just smiles and shakes her head. "I've seen them saving the world on the news so many times that it's like I already know them. I trust Thor and Sam to take care of you."

"Thanks," I reply, not feeling very thankful. I head back to the phone to tell Thor the news, pretending to be happy about it, but really feeling frustrated. I don't want to go on this trip, but everyone seems to think it's a great idea, so I guess I'm stuck with it.

After sulking for a while, I try to think of the positives. I'll get to see Sarah again, that'll be nice. She's such a cute kid. As for Sam and Thor, well, it's not like I had any exciting plans for winter break anyways other than hanging out with Anne and Joe a bit. Hmm… that makes me wonder. What if a supervillain attacks while Sam and I are away? Can my teammates manage with just the four of them? Eh, we'll just be gone for a week. What's the worst that can happen?

 _In a lair of still unknown location, a cloud is raining down water from the ceiling of a laboratory!_

 _"WILL YOU CUT THAT OUT!" the elderly villain/mad scientist, Dr. Kraus, yells, his lab coat billowing behind him as he stomps towards the teenage villain with the rain cloud hovering above his head._

 _"Do you think I WANT to have a raincloud raining on me?!" the teen yells back. "I said 'lightning powers activate!' LIGHTNING, not rain! If you don't like this rain crap then maybe you should do your science right!"_

 _"I followed the procedure correctly every step of the way!" Doctor Kraus insists. "I do not know what the problem is. It will take some time to find a solution. In the meantime, you need to calm down! The raincloud seems to be responding negatively to your emotions."_

 _The teenage villain looks up at the cloud, which is growing larger, and groans. "Easy for you to say!" Eventually, though, the teen calms down enough that the cloud disappears._

 _"Good. Let us test the next power," Dr. Kraus says, picking up a jar with a single pill in it and handing it to the teen._

 _"This one better work," the teenage villain grumbles, swallowing the pill. Dr. Kraus watches him closely. "Well?"_

 _The teen shrugs. "I feel the same."_

 _"You should now have the power to teleport. Try picturing where you want to teleport to, then expand your energy and teleport there."_

 _The teen snorts. "Right, because you know so much about teleporting." Still, then teen appears to concentrate, then suddenly he disappears and reappears halfway across the lab!_

 _"WHOA!" the teen yells, falling flat on his face._

 _The scientist grins. "It appears this test is a success!"_

 _"My face doesn't think it's a success," the teen groans, still laying face-down on the floor._

 _"That is because you need practice," Dr. Kraus replies. "Fortunately, you should be able to teleport for two more hours before this dose of power wears off, so get started!"_

 _"Yeah! I'm gonna be a hero!" the teen cheers._


	16. Not a Happy Camper

**Not a Happy Camper**

 **Laura's POV**

"Are we there yet?"

I stifle a sigh as Sarah asks the dreaded question yet again. Jane told her to stop earlier, but now she's up front keeping Thor company as he drives, so she isn't paying attention. Being in a huge camper has that effect. I've never been in a camper before. It seems like a nice way to vacation… if you don't have two cousins making annoying comments constantly, that is.

"Are we there… now?"

I sigh. "Sarah, we still have another five hours to go. How about if you work on your coloring book?" I suggest, pointing to her Disney Princess coloring book on the table.

"That's boring!" Sarah exclaims. "I wanna hurry up and get there, so I can be a hero, just like you and my brother!"

I smile. "Don't worry, Sarah, I'm sure you'll make a great hero someday."

"But I want to be a hero NOW!" Sarah yells.

"You're a bit young to be a hero now," I reply.

"But you're a hero, and you're not a grown-up," Sarah replies stubbornly.

"Yes, but see, you're only six," I say, writing the number on her drawing book, "and I'm sixteen," I say, adding a one in front of the six. "See, that's ten years older than you are. Ten years is a lot of time."

"She knows that," Sam grumbles from the corner, where he is playing a video game.

"I figured," I reply, trying not to get annoyed. Ugh. This is what I was worried the trip would be like. It started off nicely enough, with Thor and Jane coming to pick me up in their camper. My mom happened to come home right then, and was given a warm welcome by Jane. Even Thor smiled and shook my mom's hand, and since my mom only winced slightly, he must have been making an effort to keep his super-strength in check. Yet as this trip wears on, Sam is just being more and more annoying. Even Sarah, who I know isn't trying to be mean, is really getting on my nerves.

"What game are you playing?" I ask Sam when I am distracted from my book yet again by loud gunfire sounds coming out of Sam's portable videogame device.

"A game," is Sam's annoyed response.

I roll my eyes. "Oookay then," I reply, turning my attention back to my book.

After a very loooong drive, we finally arrive at the campsite. "Let us make haste to set up the tents before dark," Thor says, gesturing to the vibrant sunset in front of us, "then we shall roast the s'mores!"

"Yay! S'mores!" Sarah cheers.

Thor and Jane go back to the camper and emerge with supplies to set up tents. "This looks like a good spot," Jane says, walking a short distance away from the camper. "Thor and I will set up our tent here. Sam, how about you show Laura and Sarah how to set up your tent?

"Sam, how about you show Laura and Sarah how to set up your tent?" Sam mocks in a dumb voice as he walks away from Thor and Jane.

"It's fine, I can manage. Just hand me the instructions," I reply.

"Sure, because you're sooooo smaaaart!

"At least I'm not a dumb jock like you!" I exclaim, grabbing the instructions out of his hand.

Sam shrugs. "Have fun building the tent, nerd!"

"What's going on over there?" Jane asks, upon hearing us argue.

"Nothing," Sam replies.

"I hope not," Jane replies. "I'd like to see both of you working on that tent. Sarah, you can help as well."

Sam starts to gather the tent poles, but as soon as Jane turns her back, he hands them to me. "If you're so smart, I'm sure you can figure out where to put these."

"I'm sure I can!" I reply, already deciding where to put the first pole.

"What can I do?" Sarah asks.

"Hmm… I know, how about you read the instructions so I know what to do next?" I suggest.

"Ok!" Sarah cheers. "It says to set the tolls—"

"Tolls?" I ask, coming to look at the paper. "That's the letter 'p'. That means it spells 'polls'."

"Oh, ok," Sarah replies. She keeps reading the instructions as I alternate between placing the poles and teaching Sarah how to read. Finally, it comes time to hammer the poles in.

"How far into the ground does it say to hammer them?" I ask Sarah.

"Um…" Sarah struggles to read the instructions.

"GOT IT!" Sam yells, raising his hand in the air.

Suddenly, something cold and metallic hits my shoulder! "OWW!" I yell, just as the object ricochets past me and into Sam's outstretched hand. With a shock, I realize it is Thor's hammer! Sam slams the hammer down on the nearest pole, causing it to plant firmly in the ground.

"Be careful where you summon that," I groan, rubbing my shoulder while wondering when Sam learned how to use Thor's hammer.

"Oops, my bad," Sam says, not sounding particularly sorry. Just then, the hammer falls out of Sam's hand and onto the ground. Sam tries to pick it up, but to no avail. I guess laughing at my pain made him unworthy to use it or something.

"SAM! DID YOU TAKETH MY HAMMER?!" Thor yells.

"Maybe," Sam grumbles.

"What did I tell you? You may only use it with my permission when I am around," Thor scolds.

Sam scowls. "But at that rate, I'll never learn to use it!"

"And if you use it for everyday tasks such as setting up tents, you never will! This hammer is a weapon, not something to be taken for granted," Thor says, picking up the hammer with ease. "Perhaps I named you as my successor too soon. Have patience. There will be plenty of time for you to learn to use the weapon of you birthright. In the meantime, Mjolnir will remain in my possession."

"Fine," Sam grumbles.

Sam helps me finish setting up the tent after that, but refuses to talk. Even later on, as we roast hot dogs and s'mores around the campfire, he continues to sulk. I can't help but wonder if something more is bothering him than just breaking up with Liberty. What if he really hates me? The rest of the team, even Liberty, have managed to look past the fact that my dad is a supervillain, but it doesn't seem like Sam ever has. What if he never does? These thoughts trouble me until I drift off to sleep.


	17. Different

**Different**

 **Laura's POV**

After being kept up late by Sam's snoring and Sarah's whimpering because she is afraid of the dark, I'm not in the greatest of moods. Nevertheless, I try to remain positive, especially when it comes time for Sarah to practice her powers.

"I can't do it!" Sarah yells, getting frustrated.

"Sure you can," Jane coaxes. "You were able to use your powers before. You just have to keep trying."

"It won't work!" Sarah exclaims, not listening.

"Indeed, it is difficult to use lightning powers without a median to channel them with," Thor says. "I, too had the same problem, as did your brother Sam. That is why I channel lightning with my hammer, and Sam with his talisman. It is also why I had this necklace made for you," Thor says, pulling a necklace out of his pocket.

Sarah gasps, and I can see why. Unlike Sam's talisman, which is just a plain black string with a yellow lightning-bolt at the end, Sarah's necklace looks like a fancier version of a charm bracelet. From a silver string, several charms hang. White clouds abound, their silver linings glinting in the sunlight. Swirls of wind and lightning-bolts sway in the outdoor breeze. Blue raindrops turn rainbow-colored in the sunlight. Yet the most eye-catching aspect of Sarah's necklace is the enormous yellow sun pendant in the middle of her necklace that absolutely glows in the sun.

"Yay!" Sarah cheers, taking the necklace and hurrying to put it on. Then she looks embarrassed. "Thank you daddy," she says, having forgotten to thank Thor.

Thor smiles. "You are welcome," he replies, giving Sarah a hug. "Now go ahead and try your lightning powers again."

Sarah squeezes her eyes shut as though concentrating. Suddenly, she gasps and opens her eyes as a blast of light whizzes past the target that Thor set up for her to practice on. Yet the light didn't come out of the sky like lightning, rather, it came from Sarah's hand!

"Was that ok?" Sarah asks, noticing everyone's confused reactions.

"IT IS BETTER THAN OK!" Thor booms, being the first to recover. "When your grandmother made this necklace for you, I wondered at its design. However, I now see that she had used her power of foresight to make a necklace fit for your powers, ALL of your powers. It seems that you can control many aspects of weather. I am no mage like Odin, but I believe you just harnessed the power of the Earth's sun."

At this news, Sarah's eyes widen and her mouth drops open. As her parents comfort her, I can't help but be amazed at how much power this six-year-old has. It also occurs to me that she is the first sibling of any of us High School Heroes that could also potentially become a superhero. Liberty, Anna and I are all only children. I think Noah mentioned having a younger brother, but since Noah has only just figured out how to build a robot suit and he's eighteen, I doubt an elementary schooler could do that. Joe has brothers closer to his age though. I wonder why none of them got into spying like their parents? Eh, I suppose it's a lot of work to learn how to do that, especially if you don't have powers. I still barely know what I'm doing with powers.

My thoughts are interrupted by an unexpected sound: Sarah's crying!

"What is the matter?! Are you hurt?" Thor exclaims, rushing to Sarah's side along with Jane.

"No! I'm… I'm WEIRD!" Sarah wails, burying her face in her father's shirt.

"Sarah!" Thor exclaims, shocked by his daughter's sudden mood change.

"Oh, sweetie, it's ok to have different powers than daddy and Sam," Jane soothes, realizing what Sarah means. "Laura has different powers, and you don't think she's weird, do you?"

Sarah pulls her face away from her father's shirt and shakes her head.

"You're not weird, Sarah, I'm weird!" I exclaim. "Just watch this," I say, turning into a cat and spinning around in circles in an attempt to catch my tail, before turning back into my human form and swaying dizzily.

Sarah giggles. "You can't catch it."

"I don't know, I think I can!" I reply, turning back into cat form and attempting to catch my tail again.

Sarah giggles. "Again! Again!"

"I don't know, I'm awfully dizzy," I complain, once again swaying in human form.

"Again!"

"Ok, one more time," I reply, returning to the dizzying circles.

"Again!" Sarah exclaims, once I am back in my human form.

"That's it for now," I reply. "How about you try one of your powers?"

Instantly, Sarah's smile disappears. "I don't know…."

"I'm sure it'll go better than you think," I encourage her.

"Ok…." Sarah walks back over to the target she was practicing on earlier. She raises her right hand, Iron Man-style, as though trying to shoot more sunlight out of it. Instead, a strong gust of wind knocks the target over… which is strange, since none of the leaves in the trees are rustling around it.

"Another power?!" Sarah exclaims. Then she frowns. "That wasn't what I was trying to do."

"You'll get the hang of it," Jane encourages.

"I don't know…." Sarah whispers.

"You're doing fine," I encourage. "Besides, there's more to being a superhero than just superpowers. You also have to do things like run fast. Race you to the fallen tree!" I exclaim, trying to cheer Sarah up.

Sarah just stares at me for a moment. Then she takes off sprinting!

"No fair!" I exclaim, smiling as I chase after her. I am able to catch up with her rather quickly, at which point I slow down to let her win.

"You'll never catch me!" Sarah exclaims.

"I think I will!" I reply, making a spur-of-the-moment decision to turn into a deer. I know deer can run quickly through the forest, plus Sarah thinks it's funny when I turn into animals.

Sure enough, Sarah starts giggling when she catches sight of me, but I'm surprised at how good I feel. I have a lot more energy in deer form, and the shrubs and prickers that I would have to dodge around when in human form I can just leap over now. I whizz past Sarah, then the fallen tree. Before I know it, even the voices of Thor and Jane calling me to come back are far behind me. That's when I realize I'm in trouble.

Sometimes, when I turn into animals, I start to think a bit like that animal. Like, when I turn into a cat, every time I hear a small rustling, I think _Mouse?_ Apparently, in deer form, my instinct is to keep running and running until I'm in the middle of a huge forest. All alone. With no trails nearby. If only finding my way back was another deer instinct….

 **AN: Oops, I forgot to mention last time that I got the idea for the camping trip from a YouTube video called "Bad Days: Thor" It's a cartoon of Thor annoying Loki on a camping trip. It's actually part of a series of videos of lots of superheroes/ other popular characters having bad days if anyone is interested.**

 **Also, Doctor Kraus and the mysterious teenage villain have sort of a Walter White and Danny Pinkman vibe going on. At least I think they do. I only saw like three episodes of Breaking Bad because I happened to be around when my stepbrother was watching it, so I could be wrong.**


	18. Meanwhile, Back in New York

**Meanwhile, Back in New York…**

 **Anne's POV**

I sigh as I find myself painting over a misplaced brushstroke yet again. Usually painting is a calming activity for me, but today I can't seem to focus. Every time I try to envision the cool blues of the underwater scene I want to paint, I find myself picturing the livid yellow of Sarah's lightning bolts instead, and the anguish on her face, and me, just struggling not to Hulk out in the corner, unable to help.

I felt so useless then. There Laura was, teleporting all over the neighborhood to rescue Sarah, as she later told me, while all I did was just stand there. I did eventually calm down enough to call up Tony Stark to come help us, but he didn't answer his phone. I was just about to call Clint Barton when Thor, Jane and Sam touched down in the yard, thankfully providing the help I was looking for. Still, the fact that absolutely nothing I did was helpful made me feel awfully useless. At least it turned out alright in the end though.

Unfortunately, another threat still lurks: the elusive hooded teenager. So far he has plucked a hair from my best friend and the child I was supposed to be protecting, yet whatever he hopes to gain from that pales in comparison with what he could do with my hair.

 _The city burns, electrical wires catching fire as skyscrapers fall with terrible BOOMS. People run, panicking, in every direction except towards the monstrous creature, the new Hulk that, unlike Bruce and I, is a true villain, one with not only anger management problems, but a desire to destroy. He roars, ready to finish the job of destroying everyone and everything in the city!_

I can picture the scene as clearly in my head as though it has already happened, the curse and gift of having strong visual thinking skills. It's what makes me a good artist, but also what makes me better able to envision my many fears. Right now, it is only a possibility that someone else could get Hulk powers from my hair, but if they did….

I take a deep breath, trying to get my hand to stop shaking, then paint over my previous wobbly line. I just hope the Avengers figure out who this new villain is before anything bad happens….

"So, I'm sure you've all been wondering how the case is going," Liberty says a few hours later as we have our weekly meeting at her house this week since school is on break. "Noah, how about you share what you learned?"

"Mr. Stark wasn't able to figure out anything from examining the gloves, and Dr. Pym confirmed that Pym particles were not used on them. They're taking them to Doctor Strange to examine now."

Joe shakes his head. "Looks like you'll need some new gloves bro. Sounds like you're never gonna get these back."

Noah sighs. "Yeah."

"Welp, I guess you'll have to go to Robots R' Us and get new ones," Joe chuckles. "But seriously though, if you want to build new gloves quickly, I'm game.

Noah coughs. "Was that a joke?"

Joe grins. "Yeah, Robots R' Us. Pretty funny, right? I just made it up on the spot."

Noah shakes his head. "No."

"No?" Joe gasps, pretending to be offended. "C'mon guys, that was funny right?" Joe asks, looking back and forth between me and Liberty.

I decide not to comment. Liberty sighs. "Let's just get power training."

We walk outside as Joe pretends to clutch his heart due to us not liking his joke. A light sprinkling of snow drifts down from the sky like fairy dust, adding to the ankle-high snow already on the ground. I shiver as I watch my breathing become a visible fog in the air. For some reason, this makes me think of Laura. Although we argued in the past, and Laura is somewhat of a bad influence, always trying to get me involved in her pranks, I know that if I were in trouble, Laura would have my back. I wish she was here now. None of the other High School Heroes are really my friend. Liberty has been nice to me, but I don't like the way she treats Laura, so while I will follow her as a leader, I don't want to be her friend.

Liberty ends up teaching the three of us marital arts techniques, with Joe helping out from time to time, since he has some martial arts training as well. I am soon out of breath, due to not exercising much for fear of raising my heart rate too high and Hulking out. I am forced to take a breather, feeling too hot from exercising, yet too cold from the winter chill. Liberty insists that we need to get used to fighting in all sorts of weather, but I can't help longing to go inside. As I daydream, my gaze wanders from Liberty, Joe, and Noah to the house behind us. This is why I notice him first.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see someone teleport over to us. I smile at the familiar whooshing noise of Laura teleporting, glad she is here to join us. Then the hair on the back of my neck stands up as I remember Laura is in South Carolina!

I become frozen, not by actual ice, but by fear. Slowly, I start to turn around, dreading what I might see. And that's when I feel a tug on the back of my head.

"NO!" I exclaim, whirling around just in time to see the dreaded hooded teenager teleport away!

"Oww! Liberty exclaims suddenly from across the yard, rubbing her head. Her eyes widen as she realizes what has just happened, and she pivots and delivers a karate kick to thin air, as the teenager has already teleported away and is behind Noah, plucking a hair from his head, before teleporting out of sight!

"Quick! After him!" Liberty exclaims. She and Joe hurry after him, while Noah rushes back inside to put on his Vector suit minus gloves. I watch them go without really registering it. My body is still numb from the shock of my worst fear coming true. Again, my mind envisions what could happen if a villain unleashes the destructive Hulk anger I've been keeping in check all my life. Now, that will probably happen. And it's all my fault!

"He's gone," Liberty announces, her face grim as she and Joe return just as Noah bursts out of the house in his Vector suit. Then Liberty notices me. "Anne, are you alright?"

I nod, tears spilling down my checks.

"I'm sorry we couldn't catch him," Liberty says, her expression softening, "but I promise we'll catch him before he gains Hulk powers, if that's what you're worried about. I still can't believe he stole Laura's powers," Liberty says half to herself. "I'm going to call my dad," Liberty says, whipping out her phone to do so since, despite being at Liberty's house, her dad is not home. "Anne, how about you call Laura so that our missing team members will know what's going on?"

I nod, glad to be useful, to be able to distract myself from my problems. As the phone rings, I hope Laura will pick up, and say something funny to cheer me up. Then I really think about everything that's just happened. I could have stopped the villain if I was in better shape, or even if I just got over my fear and freakin' turned around! If he gets Hulk powers because of this, it's all my fault. Maybe I don't deserve to cheer up. Yet I can't help feeling disappointed when Laura doesn't answer. Laura, where are you?

 **In the evil lair, Dr. Kraus is mixing dangerous chemicals. Suddenly, the hooded teenager teleports into the room, startling Dr. Kraus and causing him to drop the beaker full of chemicals on the floor!**

 **"WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!" Dr. Kraus yells. "NOW I HAVE TO START THE EXPERIMENT OVER!"**

 **"I got the DNA samples! All of them!" The teen exclaims, nimbly stepping around the fizzing chemicals on the floor to deliver three Ziploc bags to the scientist. "One from Liberty, one from the Hulk girl, and one from the guy in the robot suit, just in case he has powers.**

 **The scientist nods. "Very good."**

 **"Just curious though, why do you want Hulk-girl's DNA? You're not going to turn me into a Hulk, are you?"**

 **"Of course not," the scientist says in a silky-smooth voice. "I simply wanted the DNA to compare to the daughter of Captain America. As you may know, Captain America was a successful super-soldier test subject. The Hulk was not. Studying their different DNA could help us make future super-soldier experiments more likely to be successful. That way, there will be more heroes like you."**

 **"Sweet!" the teen exclaims. "Oh hey, you said I could get powers from anyone once I finished up with this, right?"**

 **The scientist sighs. "Yes, that is right. I take it you still want the powers of that ridiculous fool of a hero?"**

 **"He's not ridiculous, he's cool!" the teen exclaims.**

 **Dr. Kraus sighs again. "Very well, but I expect you to get them on your own. You should have no trouble once I have finished preparing Liberty's powers for you."**

 **"Neat-o!" the teen cheers. "Thanks science dude!" he exclaims, dashing out of the room.**

 **"I told you not to call me that," the scientist grumbles, cleaning up the mess on the floor. He then double-checks to make sure the teen has left, before pulling off his safety gloves and dialing a number on his phone. "Project Omni is nearing completion," he says, a sinister grin slowly spreading across his face. "Hail Hydra**


	19. Mysteries

**Mysteries**

 **Sam's POV**

This trip sucks! It's bad enough that Sarah was prancing around with a charm necklace pretending to be a superhero, but now we have to look for stupid Laura because she got lost!

"Laura! Laura!" my dad calls, as though finding her would be some great blessing. Pfft! As if!

"Can't we just text her?" I grumble, when dad continues to call for Laura.

My dad shakes his head. "Nay, such devices do not work here."

"Of course they work! This isn't stupid Asgard!" I grumble, pulling out my cellphone only to find it has no signal. Drat! I guess we really are in the middle of nowhere.

"Laura!" my dad calls again.

That's it! "IF LAURA IS STUPID ENOUGH TO TURN INTO A DEER, SHE CAN FIND HER OWN WAY BACK!" I yell. "WHY DO YOU GIVE A SHIT ABOUT LAURA AND LOKI ANYWAYS?! WHAT HAVE THEY EVER DONE BESIDES CAUSE TROUBLE?!"

"Sam!" my mom scolds.

Dad sighs. "This is part of the reason I invited Laura on this trip. It seems the two of you are repeating the mistakes of Loki and I. My father, Odin, never tried to get us to resolve our differences, and look what hath happened! I do not wish for the same fate to befall you and Laura."

"Maybe it's not Odin's fault! Maybe Loki has always been evil, and Laura is just like him! Teleporting around behind everyone's backs! Turning into animals like the main attraction at some freak-show circus! I'M THROUGH WITH THEM!" I yell, charging off into the forest.

My 'rents call after me, sounding pissed, but whatever! I'm sick of all my football games my dad missed because he had to stop stupid Loki, sick of how dad was reluctant to name me as his successor, as though that clown Laura could do better, sick of how dad thinks I'm unworthy to wield his hammer, and really fucking sick of Laura's dumb pranks! I'm so pissed off, if there was a football around, I bet I could kick it all the way from one goalpost to the other out of pure anger!

I charge through the forest, not caring where I'm going, until I hear a voice say "Shit!" Laura's voice.

"Can't handle the forest?" I ask, walking over to her. I suppose I can't leave her in the forest forever, although I'm still pissed she's here.

Laura flinches in fright. "Shhh! Don't talk so loudly. I sense danger."

"Pfft! The only danger here is you'll shapeshift into something even weirder!" I exclaim, having already looked around and not noticed anything dangerous.

Laura sighs. "Here, I'll show you what I'm talking about, but please be quiet. I was trying to find my way back to the camp in deer form. I had gotten completely lost, and was hoping being in deer form would help me find my way back. When I was running without thinking about it, I ended up in the middle of the forest next to deer tracks made by other deer. I think the deer part of my brain wanted to be in the middle of the forest with other deer. That's when I got the idea to do the opposite, to go towards something that the deer part of my brain didn't like, since that would likely be our camp."

"Deer part of your brain? What the fuck?! Why don't you ever do anything normal, like, I don't know, text us?!"

Laura glares at me. "That's the first thing I tried, actually, but there was no signal. Now please be quiet. It turns out our camp isn't the most unnatural thing in the forest, this is," Laura whispers, stepping around a bush to reveal a metal door in the middle of the forest floor that leads straight down!"

"I think it's some kind of underground bunker," Laura whispers, her voice barely audible. "I knocked on the door, and there was an echo like there's a hollow space below. I don't think I should have done that though. When I first found it in deer form, I sensed something very wrong, something unnatural, something… sickly. I dread to think what's down there. Let's go!" Laura exclaims, already turning around.

"Come on, don't tell me you're scared of a door. We're heroes! We can handle whatever's down there. Or are you just a weirdo prankster like your dad?"

"Shut up!" Laura exclaims, both scared and angry.

"MAKE ME!" I yell.

"I hath found them!" dad yells from off in the distance. "Laura! Sam!"

"We're over here!" I yell, causing wimpy Laura to flinch.

"There you are!" dad yells, rushing into the clearing, mom and Sarah right behind him.

"Shhh!" Laura exclaims, pointing to the door.

"ODIN'S BEARD! WHAT IN THE NINE REALMS IS THIS?!" dad yells, causing Laura to nearly leap into the air in fright.

"Laura says it's dangerous, but I'm tough, so I can open the door, right?" I ask dad.

"Yes! Whatever menace this is must be stopped!" dad exclaims, ripping the door open with his super-strength. I wanted to do that! I'll have to show dad how tough I am by destroying anything dangerous instead. Then dad will see how much tougher I am than Laura, and he'll have to make me king! And if I tell Liberty how much ass I kicked, she'll be my girlfriend again without a doubt! That is, if I want her back. She's so bossy!

The five of us climb down the ladder that is right under the door, until we reach a mostly flat tunnel at the bottom. I charge down the tunnel, ready to kick some butt. "Sam! Slow down!" Laura yells from behind me. "There could be traps!"

It turns out she's wrong, as usual, and I reach the end of the tunnel with no trouble. I burst through another door into a room full of weird science stuff. As the lights turn on, I see nearby lab tables, microscopes, jars of chemicals, and other stuff that confuses me even more than the things we use in chemistry class. The strangest thing though is a big rectangular thing that looks like a prison cell smashed up against the far wall. What were they trying to keep in there, a Hulk?

Laura catches up to me, shaking. "Something is very wrong here," she whispers.

"Something is," Sarah agrees. "The air feels rotten!"

"That's probably because the air was trapped in here for a long time with no way to escape," Jane whispers. "Once the fresh air from the door reaches us, it will feel less stuffy."

"I don't like it," Sarah whimpers. The air around her body starts to change color, until a Sarah-made fog clouds the room. Another one of my sister's powers, I guess. Why does she get five powers and I barely get two? It's not fair!

"ANY VILLIAN WHO IS HERE, SHOW YOURSELF!" I bellow. I'll take down any villain, one power or not! I search all over the large room, eager to take down any villain who dares to challenge me! Nearby, dad joins in the search. However, we soon search everywhere and find no sign of company. Defeated, I sulk back to the others.

Sarah has stopped fogging up the room. I guess Laura or mom managed to calm her down. As I watch, Laura plugs in a fan and turns it on to get rid of the remaining fog, while mom looks at the science equipment. "It looks like someone was doing an experiment with chemicals and DNA," mom mumbles, half to herself. "Why they would need the holding cell though... I hope they weren't experimenting on humans… Oh! This could be helpful!" mom exclaims, walking over to a bookshelf. I barely noticed it, because it's small and right next to the door we came in through. Also, I hate reading.

My mom examines the bookshelf, then pulls a binder full of papers off of it. She opens the binder and gasps. "Thor, look at this!" Laura, Sarah and I come over as well and discover the first page in the binder says "Project Omni" and has the Hydra logo under it!

Dad frowns at the paper. "I am sorry, children, but it looks like our trip must be cut short. The Captain of America must learn of this!"

"That's not all," Jane adds, going back over to the bookshelf and pulling two more binders off of it, flipping them open to reveal they, too, are labeled "Project Omni". She flips through them for a second, then frowns. "Wait a minute, these binders all contain the same information," she says, flipping all three binders open to page twenty-three to reveal they all say the same thing on that page. "Why would they make multiple copies of the same notes? Were they worried the notes would get destroyed?"

Mom starts to examine the bookcase closer, then frowns. "Well, that's strange. It looks like there used to be a fourth binder of lab notes here as well," she says, pointing to a dust-free area the size of a binder next to where the other three were. "I wonder what happened to it?"

Mom looks like she's thinking about it for a moment, then she looks down at her feet. "Look at that!" she exclaims. I look where she's pointing but don't see anything but her footprints. The floor's kind of dusty, so you can see where everyone has walked. Then I realize there's a spot right under the missing binder where the footprints are more faded. They aren't as dusty as the rest of the floor, but not as clear as where our footprints are either.

"Someone must have taken the binder recently, perhaps earlier this month. But whom?"

The question remains unanswered as we climb back out of the bunker.


	20. Project Omni

**Project Omni**

 **Liberty's POV**

"So, let me get this straight," Director Fury says as the Avengers and us High School Heroes not on a camping trip sit at a conference table at S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ. "You're saying that some punk teenager stole Laura and Sarah's powers, then used them to steal yours?!"

"That's right," I reply grimly.

"Actually, not so much," Joe interrupts. "He didn't take a hair from me."

I frown. "He probably realized you don't have powers."

"I don't have powers, but he took one from me," Noah says, scratching his head.

I frown again. "That's strange." I am about to comment further, when my phone vibrates. Glancing down at it, I realize I have a text from Sam. Ugh. I am SO not in the mood to further discuss our breakup.

I turn my attention back to the conversation, just as there is a knock on the door. "Pardon the intrusion, but I have finished my tests on the gloves," Doctor Strange says, entering the room. "There were no traces of magic of any kind on them."

Several people groan when they hear this, and for good reason. Once again, we have no leads, and no idea how the glove attack happened.

"Thank you, Doctor Strange," Fury says, giving him a nod. "You may return to your duties." With that, Doctor Strange leaves.

Fury rubs his eyebrows like he has a migraine starting. "Now, back to this power-stealer—"

Just then, my phone rings. I pull it out of my pocket to reveal Laura is calling. Knowing Laura, it could just be a prank call. Then again, the fact that she is calling right after Sam texted could mean something is up. After all, none of us were able to reach her or Sam a few hours ago after our powers got stolen.

"Laura's calling. I should take this," I say to the group, starting to walk towards the hall so the meeting can continue uninterrupted.

"If you think her call is important to the meeting, you should stay, maybe put her on speakerphone," Director Fury insists.

I nod, then answer the call. "Laura, I'm in the middle of a S.H.I.E.L.D. meeting. Can this wait until afterwards?" I ask, not putting the phone on speakerphone yet in case it's a prank.

"Good, they'll want to hear this," Laura says, sounding unusually upset. "So, don't freak out or anything… but we found a secret Hydra lab."

I let the news sink in, rubbing my eyebrows as I feel a migraine of my own coming on. I knew Red Skull coming back to life at the beginning of the school year but barely causing any trouble was too good to be true! "Are you ok?" I ask Laura. "Was anyone hurt?" At my dad's concerned stare, I switch the phone to speakerphone mode.

"We're fine," Laura insists, "the lab was abandoned, but we found some lab notes, something about a Project Omni? Have you heard of that?"

I resist the urge to face palm. "If the lab was abandoned, it's likely very few people know about it," I reply, trying to keep the irritation out of my voice.

"Ok," Laura says, sounding annoyed. "Well, we're coming back now. Jane is reading the lab notes as Thor drives, so she should know what the project is about by the time we get back. Anything you want to add?" Laura asks the other people in the car.

"I FOUND THE LAB!" Sam yells from further away in the car.

"DID NOT!" Laura yells back.

"WELL, I KICKED THE EVIL SCIENTIST'S BUTTS!"

"SAM, I ALREADY TOLD LIBERTY THE LAB WAS EMPTY! STOP TRYING TO IMPRESS HER!"

I sigh, nor sure what to make of Sam's bragging. On the one hand, he's not the smartest guy around and he gets angry often. On the other hand, he was quite nice that time we went to the movies together, and it seems like he wants me back. Should I forgive him for getting angry if he is so obviously trying to impress me?

Nearby, my dad coughs. I'm so used to him not being around that I forgot he is here… and listening to Sam's attempts at impressing me. "I would like to look at the lab notes once you get back," dad says, "so make sure they stay in one piece."

There is an awkward silence, then Laura says "Will do, Captain." I realize I forgot to tell Laura and Sam they were on speaker phone. If I had, this conversation might have been less awkward.

"One more thing, Laura. While you and Sam were gone, the hooded teenager made another appearance. It turns out he was using the hairs to steal powers. He stole hair from the rest of us by using your teleporting powers."

"Great," Laura grumbles. "Have any other bad news?"

"Unfortunately, yes. No magic was used on the Vector gloves, so we still have no idea what happened there."

"Craptastic!" Laura exclaims. "Anything else?"

"That's it for now," I say, hoping nothing else will come up soon.

"Come straight to S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ as soon as you're back," Fury adds, before I end the call.

My dad sighs. "Now, all we have to do is wait."

A few hours later, we return to the conference room just as Laura, Sam, Jane, and Thor enter. Jane looks unusually somber, and she quickly goes up to Director Fury and starts a hurried but quiet conversation with him, at the end of which Nick Fury looks upset as well. He nods, and Jane walks over to me. "Steve, Liberty, would you please join me next door?"

"What is the matter?" dad asks, once we are alone with Jane in a conference room next door.

Jane takes a shaky breath. "Well, I read the lab notes from cover to cover, and I discovered that Project Omni's goal was to infuse a person with as many superpowers as possible, so that Hydra would have their own super powered individual, one who worked for them. This was before they found Red Skull and brought him back to life, of course.

"Anyways," Jane continues, "the first few people they tried to give powers to ended up dying, but eventually they got the process right, and one man managed to acquire many powers while remaining in stable condition."

Jane takes a deep breath. "That man was then ordered to kill you, Captain."

"What?!" dad exclaims. "I don't recall ever fighting a Hydra operative with superpowers, except for Red Skull, of course.

"No, you wouldn't," Jane replies. "You weren't at work when Hydra ordered the Omni test subject to attack… but Natasha was."

"Natahsa… THIS IS WHO KILLED NATASHA?!" Dad yells.

Jane nods, her gaze dropping to the floor. "I'm so sorry, Cap," she says, giving him a hug, just as he starts crying.

"I got off work early, to buy flowers. I was going to surprise Nat with them… it should have been me instead!"

Jane struggles to hold back tears of her own. "I know it must be hard hearing this, but there is some good news… as well as bad news. After using six different superpowers to catch Natasha, the man's body become unstable due to having too many superpowers, and he basically exploded, or at least that is the Hydra scientist's best guess as to what happened. The project was then ended."

"However, it seems Hydra has figured out how to prevent that, as it seems they are using the fourth lab book that went missing to restart the project, this time with a teenager as their test subject. If we can stop the teen from getting too many powers… well, it won't bring back Natasha, but it can prevent anything like that from happening again."

That's when I run. I burst out of the room, trying to hold the sobs in until I'm away from everyone. A leader can't look weak! But before I'm even past the next room, Sam comes out of it.

"Libs, are you ok? I saw you run past—"

"GO AWAY SAM!" I yell, trying to sound tough even though my heart is breaking.

"What did I do?!" Sam yells. "If you're still mad at me about before…."

I shake my head, then turn around as the tears start falling.

I can feel Sam's gaze on my back. "Hey, come here," Sam says after a while, gently turning me around. I sink into his arms and let my tears roll down his shoulder.

"There, there," Sam says a bit awkwardly. "It'll be ok." But I don't know if it ever will.

 _In the evil lair that is newer and larger than the one near the campsite, Dr. Kraus is giving the teenager instructions. "Ok, remember, teleport and then punch right away."_

 _The teen nods. "Got it." He teleports halfway across the room, barely finishing reforming before he punches a brick into smithereens._

 _The doctor claps slowly. "Good job. It seems the super-soldier powers are a success. Keep in mind that they only last for two hours though."_

 _"Aww, why can't you permanently give me these sweet muscles?" the teen asks, pointing to his now bulging biceps. That would be so cool!"_

 _"And how would you explain your sudden muscle growth to your parents, hmm?" the doctor tsk-tsks._

 _The teen's shoulder's slump. "Yeah, you're right." He sighs. "Well, two hours should be plenty of time to snag powers from my favorite hero, right?" he asks, sounding excited again._

 _Dr. Kraus sighs. "Yes, if that is still who you want powers from, I believe you are almost ready. Now, teleport and break those other bricks!"_

 _"On it!" the teen exclaims, turning into a whirlwind of teleports and punches._

 **AN: The ending is fast approaching! What do you readers think of the story so far? I was skimming back over the other chapters, and I felt like I kept repeating things like "No one knows how the Vector glove attack happened" and "Who is the hooded teenager?" over and over again. Does this story seem like it's dragging out the mystery too long or is the pacing alright?**

 **I should also mention that I stole the idea of Laura getting animal instincts when she turns into different animals from the Animorphs book series. It's been a while since I read those books, middle school actually, but that is one thing I remember. I also liked how each book was told in first person point of view by one of six different teenagers, which is partly why I decided to do the same thing but from chapter to chapter in my story.**

 **Also, sorry if Doctor Strange's one sentence didn't sound like something he would say. All I know about Doctor Strange is that he's some sort of magician-superhero and that Benedict Cumberbatch will be playing him in an upcoming movie, so yeah.**


	21. Mall Mayhem

**Mall Mayhem**

 **Laura's POV**

It all started at the mall. I invited Anne to come shopping with me to cheer up. She seemed unusually down this past week, not that I blame her. Between school being back in session and Liberty suddenly expecting the six of us to power train together every day, I've been feeling blah too due to lack of free time. Although neither of our bad moods compare to Liberty's. While she's never been super cheerful, now she seems to be in a permanent bad mood, always yelling at everyone and telling us to train harder. Well, if training harder means turning into a grump like Liberty, then I don't think I want to!

Anyways, I'm glad I invited Anne to the mall. We had a good time talking and relaxing, as well as buying some nice cloths. I bought a new pair of earrings and a nice shirt that I could maybe wear on a date with Joe, while Anne bought a new pair of jeans and a Hufflepuff t-shirt to go with my Ravenclaw one.

Anne is about ready to leave, but I manage to convince her to stop in one last store. It's a fancier store, one that only sells dresses and suits. "Are you sure you want to look here?" Anne asks. "This clothing seems a bit fancy for just wearing on a date," she says, fingering a silken dress sleeve.

"I know, I'm just looking. After all, it's never too early to look for a Prom dress."

"That's true," Anne replies. "That is, if you're sure Joe is going to ask you."

"Of course!" I exclaim. "Things have been going great so far, so why would we break up?"

Anne sighs. "I wish I had your confidence… or a boyfriend."

"I'm sure you'll find someone," I reply. "Besides, having a boyfriend isn't always a good thing," I say, gesturing to an arguing couple who has just entered the store.

"You want to wear a sweater-vest to the banquet?! A SWEATER-VEST?!" the lady yells.

"Babe, chill," the guy replies, holding up his hands. "It's just a banquet. We'll be there for like an hour, tops. A sweater-vest is fiiiiine."

"JUST A BANQUET?!" the lady yells.

"Maybe we should get going," Anne says, glancing anxiously at the couple.

"Uh huh, just a sec," I reply, having found a slimming black dress that might look nice on me.

"Hey, what's the big idea?! Why are you grabbing my hair?!" the guy suddenly yells.

Wait a minute, HAIR?!

I turn around just in time to see the hooded teenager running out of the store!

"After him!" I yell, hoping that Anne can help me without Hulking out. Then I see the male shopper's confused face, and I realize that I've forgotten one important thing. "Are you a superhero?" I ask, since I can't really see his face very well because he is wearing a hat and sunglasses. "Because we are, and that teen used our hair to steal our powers!"

The guy grins. "Finally! A break from shopping." He whips off his hat and sunglasses and I gasp as I recognize him as Johnny Storm, aka The Human Torch!

"FLAME ON!" Johnny yells, so excited for a fight that he accidently lights the suit he is holding on fire as he rushes to catch the villain.

"EEP!" his girlfriend and/or wife exclaims. "I am so sorry. How much was that?" she asks, shoveling out money to the cashier, whose mouth is hanging open, in order to make up for her husband's irresponsible behavior.

"Meet me at the food court," Anne says, walking away to sit out the fight. I nod, then turn into my Jotun form and sprint after the teenager on the ground, with The Human Torch flying above. Fortunately, the mall's ceiling is high, so he has plenty of space to fly without lighting peoples' hair on fire. Also fortunate is the fact that he is able to fly very quickly uninterrupted, whereas the teen has to dodge around shoppers on the crowded mall floor. It seems like we should be catching up to the teenager… but we aren't.

At first, I think it's just my imagination, but no, the teen is actually outrunning us. But how? He isn't even teleporting. It's like he has super-speed… oh, duh. He must have Liberty's super-soldier powers, allowing him to run faster than most people. In fact, now that I look at him, I thought I remembered his hoodie being a bit baggier as well. It looks like he got some super muscles for super-strength as well.

Before I know it, the teen darts into a store. "Stand guard!" I yell at Johnny, as I rush into the store to find the teenager. I realize a second later that I maybe shouldn't be bossing the older superhero around, plus he's not going to be "standing" guard since he's flying, but oh well. It's a lot easier for me, a teleporter, to search the crowded store than a guy on fire.

Unfortunately, I soon search the whole store and see no sign of him. I guess he must have teleported through a wall or something. Since I'm not sure how thick the walls are to teleport through them, or even if that's for sure what the teen did, I decide to admit defeat.

"No luck?" Johnny asks, still hovering in flame form above the store entrance, where a crowd is starting to gather. I shake my head. Johnny sighs, his flames starting to extinguish as he lowers to the ground. Unfortunately, the casual clothing he was wearing burned away. Fortunately, he must have been wearing his flame-proof Fantastic Four outfit underneath, because that is what he is now wearing.

"Darn, wish we could have caught him," Johnny says. "You say he also stole your powers of… oh, hey, are you one of the High School Heroes?" he asks, after taking a better look at me.

"Yep!" I exclaim, excited he's heard of me.

"You guys did a good job fighting those blue aliens," Johnny grins. "High five!"

I raise a hand to high-five him, and almost get my hand melted off! Though his fire powers are off, his hand is still really warm, and since I'm still in my frozen Jotun form, that doesn't feel too good!

"Never mind!" Johnny yells, rubbing his hands together since I apparently froze him by accident as well.

"So… you're going to a banquet?" I ask, breaking the awkward silence.

Johnny nods. "Yeah. While you high schoolers and Avengers were saving New York from the aliens, us Fantastic Four were saving another city from Doctor Doom and his Doombots. They decided to throw us a banquet, so I guess I'll show up," Johnny says, shrugging. "Wish my wife wouldn't make such a big deal about it though."

"Johnny Storm! Can I have your autograph?!" a lady yells.

"Sure thing," Johnny grins, winking at her as he autographs her shopping bag. "I'll let my teammates know about this power-stealer," Johnny says, as he signs another autograph. "Maybe we can stop him."

"Thanks!" I reply. "Well, I better go find my friend," I say, as a crowd gathers around Johnny and people start asking for my autograph. "Thanks for your help!" I exclaim, as I run away from the fans trying to follow me.

After a lot of running and a few teleports, I finally manage to lose the crowd. Ducking down a deserted hallway, I hide behind a vending machine and turn back into my human form. While it would have been nice to have time to change into my superhero costume, turning into my Jotun form at least disguises my face enough that people won't instantly recognize me, I hope.

It seems I am right, as I manage to walk back through the crowd of fans without any of them recognizing me. Soon, I make it to the food court, and spot Anne.

"Did you catch him?" Anne asks.

I shake my head.

"Darn," Anne says, her shoulders slumping. "He didn't… hurt anyone, did he?"

"No, not unless you count hurting Johnny Storm's fashion sense because some of his hair is missing," I tease.

Anne doesn't laugh. "So he didn't… display any Hulk powers?"

"Huh? No," I say, a bit surprised. "I don't think he'd give himself Hulk powers to steal other heroes' hair, not unless he wanted to wreck the whole mall."

Anne's eyes widen, and she starts to tear up. That's when I realize how stupid I am.

"I didn't mean… I mean you wouldn't… not like that!" I babble, as Anne struggles not to cry.

"Let's just go," Anne whispers. I nod, unsure what to say.

"I just don't know how to cheer her up," I conclude, having just finished telling Joe what happened earlier on the phone. "I mean, my jokes won't cheer her up, and I can't really prank her for fear she'll get too scared and Hulk out. What should I do?"

"Beats me," Joe says on the other side of the phone. "Whenever Sam is mad at me I just wait for him to calm down. It might take a few days, but he always comes around."

I sigh. "Yeah, maybe I should just wait. I just hate to see her so sad. I wish we could just catch this stupid teen already."

"You and me both," Joe groans. "I just don't understand how the glove attack happened. If this person doesn't have powers or magic, how did it happen?"

"Well, as Sherlock Holmes likes to say, 'When you rule out the impossible, whatever is left, however improbable, must be possible.' At least, I think Sherlock Holmes said that. Or was it The Doctor from Doctor Who?"

Joe sighs. "Right now, everything seems impossible. Oops, I gotta go, Juni is crying. Goodnight, Laura."

"Goodnight, Joe," I reply, smiling. My smile soon fades though, and when it comes time for bed, I fall into an uneasy sleep, with nightmares about floating hoodies and underground cages.

 _In the evil lair, Doctor Kraus is having a heated conversation on the phone. "YOU CANNOT RUSH ME!" he yells. "IF MY SUBJECT DIES, THEN OUR WORK WILL BE FOR NOTHING!" He pauses to listen. "No. Yes, I understand. Very well, but that is the absolute earliest! Yes, yes. Hail Hydra," he says halfheartedly, slumping to the ground._

 _Just then, the hooded teenager bursts into the lab. "I GOT IT!" he yells. "POWERS FROM MY FAVOROTE HERO! WOOT!" he cheers, handing the scientist the hair. "So I'm thinking of going for Spiderman or Deadpool's powers next, since they're my other favorite heroes. Deadpool's healing factor is wicked, but would I go crazy if I get his powers? Like, on a scale of one to ten, how crazy—"_

 _"There's been a change of plans," Doctor Kraus announces. "You will be breaking into Pym Corp to steal Pym particles."_

 _"What? You want me to have Antman's powers? But Antman is so boring!"_

 _"Don't argue with me!" Doctor Kraus replies, but he lacks his usual anger._

 _"But really though, stealing? That's not very heroic," the teen comments._

 _"We can pay them back once you are a hero," the scientist insists. When the teen still looks skeptical, he sighs. "Look, the X-Men were born with powers and they save people's lives. The Fantastic Four become empowered by a chance solar storm and they save people's lives. What do they have in common? Powers. It is not about how you get powers, but how you use them that matters. Once people see that you are a hero, they will be willing to overlook a single theft."_

 _"I guess," the teen says, not looking thoroughly convinced. "And once people see how cool I am, you'll give everyone powers, right?"_

 _"Of course," Doctor Kraus replies, sounding tired. "Now go, I must prepare your fire powers."_

 _"Sweet!" the teen exclaims, leaving by teleporting through the wall instead of using the door. The scientist does not scold him as usual however, in fact, he barely notices as he frantically works on sequencing the DNA for fire powers._

 **AN: The Fantastic Four references are from the** _ **Fantastic Four**_ **and** _ **Rise of the Silver Surfer**_ **movies from the early 2000's, not the new movie that I haven't seen. Also, since this story is set in the future, I figured Johnny might be married.**


	22. A Reason to Fight for

**A Reason to Fight for**

 **Liberty's POV**

I hit the punching bag. The recoil stings my knuckles as I hit it again, causing me to grit my teeth and hit it harder, and harder, and harder, until the bag finally breaks. Wiping the sweat off my brow, I detach the broken punching bag from the low ceiling and hang up a new one. Since I am in my father's gym and he also breaks things with his super-strength on occasion, he has plenty of spare punching bags for such occasions.

"Liberty! Are you alright?" Dad exclaims, running into the room.

"I'm fine," I reply. Ugh! The one time I don't want my dad to be around, he has the week off. Nick Fury gave him a week off assignments after hearing about what happened to Natasha. I don't know how he can stand it! If I were to sit around, I'd likely start crying, so I don't sit around. I train. I've managed to fill every spare moment with training, from early in the morning, to late at night. After all, it's not like I can sleep anyways. Training might not bring my mom back, but defeating Hydra and the hooded teenager will bring justice to my mom and others who may have been hurt by Project Omni, as well as prevent anyone else from being hurt by it in the future. I will stop them! I have to!

"Liberty!" dad starts, looking at the punching bag I have just broken… as well as the five punching bags I broke earlier this morning. "Libs," he repeats, putting his hand out to stop the swing of the punching bag so that I will be forced to listen to him with no distractions. "I'm glad you are dedicated to becoming the best hero you can be, but it's ok to take a break sometimes," dad says, sounding concerned. "Do you know why your mother and I named you Liberty?"

"Because liberty, or freedom, is what we fight for," I answer, "whether it is the freedom to live without fear of Nazi's, or the freedom for mutants to live a peaceful, unregistered life."

"Yes, a superhero should fight for freedom, but heroes should also be free themselves. Your mother liked the name Liberty because it reminded her of her newfound freedom as an Avenger, a freedom she lacked when she was forced to be a spy for the KGB. I'm glad that you care about helping people, but don't be afraid to give yourself some free time."

"Ok," I whisper.

"Are you sure you're alright?" my dad asks. "I know the news about mom must be hard for you to hear. I'm sorry I've been away on so many missions lately. If there's anything I can do—"

"I'm late for school," I interrupt, rushing out of the room. Dad may think he's trying to help, but right now, the only thing that can make me feel better is stopping Hydra. After all, the fact that I've been searching for information about my mom's killer for years, yet Jane and Laura found it without even looking for it makes me feel like I wasn't looking hard enough!

"Any news?" I ask Joe when I get to school.

Joe shakes his head. "No, that's what James and I were just talking about," he says, gesturing to another teen just slightly older than him that I realize is his brother James.

"Hi, I'm Liberty," I introduce myself. "You're the teen who warned us Dylan might have been behind the glove attack, right?"

"Yep, that was me," James replies, in an easygoing, smooth voice. He frowns slightly. "Sorry it turned out to be a false lead."

"That's ok," I reply, while thinking the sound of his voice and the shape of his body are also ok, maybe better than ok. His hair is short, black, and gelled up in a lazy 'I just got out of bed' sort of look that matches his easygoing personality. He has brown eyes, a letterman jacket, and jeans that are baggy, but not to the point of being sloppy. He looks like a guy that is fun to hang out with, that I might want to hang out with—no!

I need to stop Hydra and Project Omni from claiming any more victims, not sit around crushing on guys! Besides, I'm already dating Sam.

"Well, thanks anyways, James," Joe says, walking away.

"No problemo, bro," James replies, walking away as well. I can't help feeling disappointed to see him go.

I soon get over it, however, as I busy myself with schoolwork. After all, A's don't just magically appear. As the day wears on, however, I find myself losing focus more and more. Hydra could be out there killing people right now! I should be out there stopping them, not sitting in class!

I am so anxious about what Hydra could be doing, that when my cellphone rings, I practically leap out of my chair!

"Liberty here," I answer, after rushing out of the classroom while doing the best I can to avoid everyone's stares. After all, my friends all know to text me, so this is likely something S.H.I.E.L.D. related.

"Liberty!" Director Fury's voice booms. "I have an assignment for you. Our agents have uncovered a Hydra plot to steal Pym Particles when Doctor Pym shows off the technology at a New York Expo this afternoon. The job I have for you and the other High School Heroes is to stop that from happening!"

"Yes sir!" I reply. "Do we have any information on who will be attempting the burglary?" I ask, but I have a feeling I already know the answer. "Is it the hooded teenager?"

"The actual words used were 'Project Omni Test Subject', but yes, that is who you will be stopping, or at least trying to stop."

"Great," I sigh. "We haven't had the greatest luck stopping him so far."

"I know," Fury replies. "I trust you can learn from your past mistakes, but in case he is still too difficult to catch, you have a secondary mission: place a tracker on him. That way, even if he gets the Pym Particles, we can track him back to his Hydra base."

I nod. "Understood."

"My agents will be contacting your teammates shortly," Fury replies. "Once you are all accounted for, you may drive to the location I will provide to you."

"You want me to drive?" I ask, surprised.

"This is a covert operation to be completed on short notice!" Director Fury exclaims. "Our S.H.I.E.L.D. jets are too noticeable, and we don't have time to send a car full of S.H.I.E.L.D. agents to you. I trust you can drive your teammates there without crashing, since you do have your driver's license."

"You can count on me!" I reply.

"Good. Now get to it!" Director Fury exclaims, then hangs up the phone.

I hang up as well, and see Joe coming down the hall towards me. Soon, all of us High School Heroes gather at the attendance office, where the secretary signs us out. "That's funny how all of your parents decided to call you off at the same time," the secretary comments.

"Yes, funny," I reply, hoping the secretary hasn't guessed my teammates' secret identities. Unfortunately, as we exit the school, I realize a bigger problem.

"So… my car only has four seats…." I begin.

"DIBS ON THE FRONT!" Sam yells, not helping any.

"I can follow from above in my Vector suit," Noah offers.

"Thank you Noah," I reply. I was hoping he'd volunteer. "Laura, have you ever tried shape-shifting into a bird? Perhaps you could follow from above as well."

"Well, not really," Laura begins.

"Actually, I wouldn't mind following from above," Joe cuts in. "I just finished building a grappling hook that should let me swing from building to building like Spiderman. This sounds like the perfect time to test it out!"

"It would have been better if you tested it out before a major battle," I reply disapprovingly.

"Aww, come on!" Joe replies.

"Please let him try it, it sounds cool," Laura replies, smiling at Noah.

I sigh. "Ok, but you better be at the building when we are." I turn to Noah. "Noah, please keep an eye on Joe in case something goes wrong."

Noah nods. "Will do."

"Great," I reply. "Now then, since I'm driving, who wants to read me the directions?"

"I will!" Laura exclaims.

"No you won't!" Sam yells. "You're the one who got lost in the forest. I should read the directions. Besides, I'm in the front seat anyways."

"That has nothing to do with anything!" Laura exclaims.

"Anne, you're reading the directions, alright?!" I exclaim, both to shut Laura and Sam up, as well as to help Anne feel useful. She still seems a bit down from getting her powers stolen.

"Oh, ok," Anne says, sounding surprised.

"Alright, time to get going!" I say, trying to sound cheerful. But if we can barely even work out how to drive places, how are we ever going to stop this villain?


	23. A Swing and a Miss

**A Swing and a Miss**

 **Joe's POV**

"You ready?" Noah asks, as I nervously tap my fingers on the grappling hook.

"Ready," I reply, a mix of nervousness and excitement coursing through me. What if the device breaks down in midair? But there's no time for second guessing, as Liberty is already driving away. I'll just have trust my own gadget building skills.

"I've got your back," Noah says, starting to rise into the air.

"Thanks," I reply, knowing I can trust Noah as well. Then I take aim at the top of the nearest building and shoot my grappling hook.

Suddenly, I find myself zooming through the air like a roller-coaster going down the first hill, only I'm going up, and there's no track! I barely manage to hold on, and when I reach the roof, I fall forward onto my stomach with a thud.

"…well, you survived…." Noah comments dryly, flying up next to me.

"Oh, shut up," I reply. "Let's see how it does sideways," I say, excited to try again, the adrenaline coursing through my veins making it hard to stand still. I aim the grappling hook at a building that is more or less level with this one and release. I then jump just as the hook catches, using the momentum to swing to the building. This time, I manage to do a roll just as I land on the building, allowing me to come to a stop.

"Nice," Noah comments.

"Thanks," I reply.

I keep swinging from building to building, getting a bit better at the process each time. Before long, I start thinking about how to improve the grappling hook. Spiderman's webs were what inspired me to make this specialized grappling hook, but the thing is, Spiderman swings from building to building by shooting a web out of one hand, using it to swing towards a building, then shooting a web out of his other hand and swinging towards another building while letting go of the first web. After all, dropping a small piece of web is no big deal. Carrying around a bunch of grappling hooks and dropping one whenever I wanted to change directions would be a hassle though, which is why I'm only using one. Unfortunately, this makes traveling a lot slower, as I have to land on the roof of a building and unhook the hook before casting it out to another building. (Note: redesign grappling hook for faster travel.)

Fortunately, I'm still able to keep up with Liberty's car. How can I swing from buildings faster than a car, do you ask? One word: traffic. New York City has terrible traffic, and Liberty is driving right into it. Every time I'm about to lose sight of the car, another traffic light turns red, and I catch back up. It seems like we're going to make it to our destination in good time.

Then disaster strikes! I run to the edge of a roof only to discover there are no more skyscrapers in front of me that I can swing to. The only buildings nearby are some two-story restaurants way down below. This is a problem, because grappling hooks are good for going up, or sideways, but not down.

"Hey, Noah, can I hitch a ride?" I ask, sticking my thumb out in imitation of a hitch-hiker.

Noah sighs. "Sure," he replies, awkwardly wrapping his arms around me and lifting me into the air. "Geez, carrying you is really draining the suit's power. What have you been eating?"

I grin. "Oh, the usual. Bricks, stones, and a heaping plateful of Let's Annoy Noah."

"I'm rolling my eyes at you under this armor," Noah informs me, as we touchdown on a skyscraper on the other side of the gap.

We soon catch back up to the car with Liberty and the others. Before long, we arrive at the Expo building. Various scientists, celebrities, and other important people are pulling into the parking lot in limousines, sports cars, and SUV's. I follow Liberty's car a block away from the Expo, where it stops. With the help of Noah, I manage to join the others on the ground. (Note: rework grappling hook so going down is easier.)

Once on the ground, I discover everyone is arguing. "I'm not saying you're a bad spy!" Laura yells. "It's just that, unless you have the Psychic Paper from _Doctor Who_ to convince people we belong at the Expo, no one is going to let us in!"

"Shush! That's what I'm calling about," Liberty, who has been holding a phone up to her ear the whole time, exclaims. "I can't believe Director Fury would just send us here without a plan. Well, a plan to get in, that is. Does everyone remember what I told you about the Pym Particle testing and the trackers?"

I nod along with everyone else, fingering the tracker in my hoodie pocket.

"Good," Liberty says. "Remember, stick to the plan." With that, she goes back to waiting for someone at S.H.I.E.L.D. to pick up the phone.

"I SAY WE JUST CHARGE IN THERE AND GET THIS THING OVER WITH!" Sam exclaims. "The teen is bound to be here by now!"

"And how would you explain that to the guests?" Laura asks.

"We could walk in wearing our costumes and announce it's an emergency!" Sam counters.

"And cause everyone to panic?!" Liberty exclaims. "Sam, I know you really want to catch this guy. I do too, but we have to wait for the right moment, otherwise it won't work."

Just then, Liberty starts listening intently, as though someone has finally picked up the phone. "Yes. Yes, of course. Alright. Thank you, dad." Liberty turns to us. "My dad is going to help us get in. Follow my lead," she says, starting towards the doors.

Laura rolls her eyes behind Liberty's back. "Do we ever do anything else?" I chuckle slightly, sticking close to Laura as we make our way to the doors.

Once there, a man in a fancy suit asks us for our invitations. Looking around, I notice that the other guests are all dressed up as well, and giving us weird looks. I hope Liberty knows what she's doing, because right now I feel like a muggle trying to get into Hogwarts!

"Invitations?" the guard asks, sounding board.

"I'm so sorry, we left them at home, but if you would just listen to my father for a sec, you'll see why we need to get in," Liberty pleads.

"No invitation, no entry," the guard replies. Then his eyes widen. "Wait a minute, are you Liberty Rogers?"

"Yes. Now, if you would just listen to my dad for a moment—"

"Sure, sure," the guard replies, gingerly picking up Liberty's cell phone as though it might explode in his hand. He listens for a moment, then his eyes grow even wider. "I'm sorry about the misunderstanding," he says, handing the phone back to Liberty. "Right this way, madams and sirs."

"What did Cap tell him?" Sam asks once we are out of earshot.

Liberty shrugs. "Something patriotic, I assume," she replies, sounding distracted. "Right, so here we are. Remember, try to blend in until there's a sign of trouble. Now, let's split up."

With that, we all head off in different directions, which is easy enough considering the building is huge! I can't help wondering if this is the best plan though. I mean, the hooded villain is bound to recognize us, split up or not, especially since, in our school cloths, we stick out like a sore thumb.

Still, despite the awkward plan, I manage to enjoy myself. There is a large table full of free hour de vours that I snack on… that is, until I realize that, while the snacks are technically free, there is a donation box at the end of the table, and since most people here are millionaires, their donations are as large as car payments. Backing away from the table, I spot a celebrity and manage to get his autograph. After getting a few more autographs, an announcement is made that the expo is starting soon, and I join everyone in the large auditorium for the Expo.

Before I know it, Doctor Hank Pym comes out onto the stage. He is quite old now, and using a wheelchair, but his eyes gleam with excitement at his latest scientific breakthrough.

"Ladies and gentlemen! May I present to you the latest breakthrough in Pym Particle technology: the iPym! In the past, Apple customers would have to separately purchase a small cellphone, a medium sized tablet, and a large laptop, but no longer! Now, using Pym Particles, you can purchase just one device that grows and shrinks to fit your needs! Want to do a complicated business report? Just press the up button, and Pym Particles will grow your device to precisely laptop size! On the go? Press the down button, and presto! You have a cellphone! With this device, you will never need another device again!"

I sit there, mesmerized, as Dr. Pym describes the device while showing us a working prototype of it. As a gadget whiz, this device is like a dream come true! I want to take it apart and see how it works, and get Hank Pym's autograph while I'm at it!

I'm so busy daydreaming about gadgets and autographs that I almost miss what happens next. "This small vial of Pym Particles is all a standard model would require," Dr. Pym announces, holding up a small vial of Pym Particles to the audience. Just as he says that, the hooded teenager teleports out of nowhere and grabs the vial out of Dr. Pym's hand!

"STOP HIM!" Liberty yells from across the gym. I jump out of my seat and run towards the hooded teenager, but to no avail, as the teenager teleports all the way to the side of the auditorium and opens a window. He is about to jump out the window, when Laura teleports right in front of him and tries to fight him! Unfortunately, it seems the teen has Liberty's super-strength, as he punches Laura, who staggers backwards and falls on the floor!

The villain's attack on Laura leaves me seeing red! I charge forward, notching an arrow as I run, but it seems Laura still has a trick up her sleeve. As the teen once again tries to climb out the window, Laura teleports in front of him with a bunch of… shadow doppelgangers is I think what she called them? I'm not as into _Naruto_ as she is. Well, anyways, it looks like there are ten Laura's blocking the window, but only one of them is the real Laura. The rest are just illusions that disappear over time, or right away if someone walks through one.

For a moment, the villain pauses as though considering what to do. I pull the string back on my bow, but before I can aim properly, the villain catches on fire, causing several people in the auditorium to scream… including one terrified Laura, who steps backwards while all her illusion copies stay in place!

At this, the villain runs forward through one of the fake Lauras, causing the fake Laura to disappear. He then jumps out the window and sours up into the sky, using The Human Torch's powers to fly. Only then do my teammates and I finally reach the window.

"THIS SUCKS!" Sam yells. "WHEN ARE WE FINALLY GOING TO BEAT HIM?!"

"Well, I guess that's that," Liberty says, struggling to keep a calm voice. We'll just have to report to S.H.I.E.L.D., tell them the bad news—"

"Actually, it isn't all bad news," Laura says, walking over while clutching her side. "I did manage to put a tracker on him before he fled."

"Laura! You're amazing!" Liberty cheers, causing Laura to mumble a surprised "Thanks." Then Liberty's face falls. "Oh wait, the fire probably melted the tracker. Still, it's worth a try." With that, Liberty pulls out the small device Director Fury gave her to locate the tracking devices, and there is a ping!"

"Quick! Follow the ping!" Liberty orders. We rush out of the building, along with several panicking guests, and follow the pinging dot on Liberty's tracking device. At first, the dot keeps moving, but then it stops. Soon, we are close to the place where it stopped.

"Stay alert, this could be a trap," Liberty whispers. Cautiously, we advance, until the device says the tracker is right in front of us, yet the teenager is nowhere to be seen! The only thing in front of us is a dumpster. Liberty cautiously advances, since the dumpster is technically large enough to have a person inside. Yet when she whips open the lid, the only thing there is the hooded teenager's smoking hoodie and a pile of other trash.

"Well, so much for that," Liberty grumbles, picking up the hoodie to reveal the beeping tracker on it.

That's when I notice something. "Wait a sec, that hoodie looks familiar."

"Because he stole your hair before?" Liberty asks.

"No, I think I've seen it somewhere else, like maybe on someone I know."

"Can you remember who you saw it on?" Liberty asks hopefully.

I try to remember, but I just can't. "No," I reply, my shoulders slumping.

"Well, let me know if you remember," Liberty replies. "I guess we better report to S.H.I.E.L.D." And with that, we leave.

 _In the evil lair, Dr. Kraus is hurriedly mixing chemicals. Just then, the no-longer-hooded teenager sprints into the room. "WOO HOOOOOOOOOOO!" he cheers. "I GOT IT!"_

 _"You did? Good," Dr. Kraus replies, grabbing the vial out of the teen's hand and adding a drop to a bubbling mixture, causing it to expand rapidly and bubble all over the table!_

 _"NO!" Dr. Kraus yells angrily. "THAT TOOK ME HOURS TO MAKE! THERE IS NO TIME FOR MISTAKES!"_

 _"Whoa, you ok? Take a chill pill!" the teen exclaims._

 _"I CANNOT DO 'THE CHILL'!" Dr. Kraus roars. "I HAVE WORK TO DO! I AM NOT JUST TURNING YOU INTO A SUPERHERO FOR YOUR OWN PERSONAL ENJOYMENT, YOU KNOW!"_

 _"Then why are you?" the teen asks, but his eyes have a strange look to them, as though he is not really paying attention._

 _"…just be careful, please," the scientist replies, sounding more concerned for the teen than angry, but the teen doesn't notice._

 _"Be careful? But I'm feeling flame-ful!" he exclaims, bursting into flames and leaping into the air._

 _"CUT THAT OUT!" Dr. Kraus replies, back to being his grumpy old self. Then his eyes widen. "Wait a minute, didn't you take your power pills over three hours ago?!"_

 _"Yep!" the teen grins, now randomly teleporting around the room._

 _"B-but those should have worn off after two hours!" The scientist looks at the teen's face anxiously and finally notices the strange look in his eyes. "Are you feeling dizzy at all? Any difficulty breathing?" the scientist asks, struggling to remain calm._

 _"I feel GRRREAT! My power level is OVER 9,000!" the teen yells, randomly quoting things from TV while punching various tables with his super-strength until they explode._

 _"I would strongly advise you to stop!" the scientist exclaims. "It seems I made the dosage of the pills too strong. If you continue this behavior, it will adversely affect—"_

 _"Why can't you see-ee?_

 _Bein' a hero's my des-ti-ny!_

 _Try to stop me_

 _And I'll stop you!_

 _Su-per-powers!_

 _Gotta' have em' all!_

 _GOTTA HAVE EM' A-ALL!"_

 _The teen yells, interrupting the scientist by randomly singing the_ _Pokemon_ _theme song with his own words._

 _"You are making me very anxious!" the scientist exclaims, a note of panic in his voice. "Please sit down so I can figure out how to stabilize you."_

 _"No can do! I have a date tonight!" the teen exclaims, then he bursts into flames and punches a hole in the roof with his super-strength, effectively getting away!_

 _"COME BACK HERE!" Dr. Kraus shrieks, in full panic mode. When the teen shows no sign of returning, he swears, then frantically whips out his cellphone, having to redial several times because his hands are shaking so badly. Finally the call goes through. "Hello, this is Doctor Kraus," he whispers. "I'm afraid I have some bad news regarding Project Omni…."_

 **AN: Wow, this chapter ended up being really long. That's probably because I spent so long describing Joe swinging through the city. My favorite superhero is Spiderman, and I got a bit carried away with Joe using his tech skills to figure out a way to swing around like him. Sorry if I didn't describe things well/ spent too much time talking about Spiderman in an Avengers story.**

 **Next chapter will have a big reveal, so stay tuned!**


	24. The Hooded Teenager

**AN: If you haven't seen** _ **Star Wars: The Force Awakens**_ **, then don't read the author's note at the bottom.**

 **The Hooded Teenager**

 **Joe's POV**

Why did the hoodie look familiar? Who is the mysterious teenager? And, more importantly, who won the French and Indian War?

I groan as I realize I have gotten distracted from doing my huge history project that is due Monday yet again. I should have gotten it done yesterday after the Expo, or this morning, but I couldn't concentrate. I can't help it though. I just hate that the mystery of the hooded teenager has gone on for so long now, especially since he hurt Laura. If only I knew who he was!

I finally concentrate long enough to find one source for my research paper, when my parents start yelling. Apparently the school just called to tell my parents that my younger brother Ethan skipped school yesterday, and my parents are arguing about what to do about it. When I realize they aren't going to stop anytime soon, I decide to give up on the project for now and do some archery. The weather is unusually warm for January, and as I fire at the targets around the yard, I find myself paying less attention to my surroundings than usual, to the point where I almost hit someone!

"AIYEEEEEEEEE!" a girl screams, barely dodging my arrow.

"I'm so sorry!... uh, Ashley?" I say hesitantly. I recognize her as my brother James's current girlfriend, but he has had so many girlfriends that I can't remember her name.

"Ashley?" the girl exclaims. "HOW DARE YOU MISTAKE ME FOR THAT SLUT! I'll have you know I'm Brittney, the best student in James's chemistry class," she exclaims, swishing her hair.

"Uh, sorry," I reply. "Are you looking for James?" I ask, quickly changing the subject.

"Actually, I was looking for anyone but James. You see," she begins, wringing her hands nervously, "James was acting really weird yesterday, and I thought I should tell his family."

"Acting weird? How so?"

"Well, he was acting strangely cheerful, like, WAY too cheerful, and he was hot, like sooo hot, and—"

"On second thought, never mind," I grumble, walking back towards my house.

"Wait, you don't understand—" Britney gets cut off as I shut the door in her face. She's right about one thing, I don't understand! If that was supposed to be a prank, it wasn't funny. All her calling my brother hot did was remind me how I was unable to protect Laura yesterday.

On the bright side, my parents have finally stopped yelling because they left to do errands, so I manage to get some work done on my history project. Before long, however, I find myself worrying about the hooded teenager yet again. For some reason, Laura's comment of "When you rule out the impossible, whatever is left, however improbable, must be possible" comes to mind.

Once again, I find myself thinking over everything that happened and wondering what I could have missed. I think back to everything I did at school before the glove attack, and come to the same conclusion as always that no one could have tampered with the gloves without superpowers. Since Iron Man determined no superpowers were used, that was not how the gloves were tampered with. But if someone didn't tamper with the gloves at school, then when would they have? I mean, my parents have the best home security system there is, being spies with a lot of enemies and all that. The only people who can get into our house when the security system is on is… my family.

A wave of cold washes over me as I realize that my family members are the only people who could have possibly tampered with the gloves. I quickly try to convince myself that's not true. After all, my parents are heroes, Juni is only seven... and Ethan skipped school yesterday, the day of the Expo!

Crap! If Ethan really is the hooded villain, if he hurt Laura… I charge down the hallway and am halfway to his room before I realize I should think about this a sec. If I start accusing my brother and it turns out he isn't the hooded villain he'll probably be mad at me for a long time. On the other hand, if he really is the hooded villain and he decides to fight me, I wouldn't stand a chance against him and his many powers.

I decide to take a risk and talk to Ethan. I hate mistrusting him like this, but if there is even a chance that he is the hooded villain, then I have to stop him before he hurts more people like Laura. I grab my bow and fill my quiver with only net arrows. I'm not going to hurt my brother, but I will trap him in a net if it turns out he's working for H.Y.D.R.A.

"Ethan?" I ask, setting my bow and arrows down and knocking on his bedroom door. I wait a few seconds, but I don't think he heard me, although that's not too surprising since he's blasting heavy metal music.

"ETHAN!" I yell, banging on his door so loudly he'll have to hear me.

"What?" Ethan grumbles, opening the door to give me an annoyed look.

"Is everything alright?" I ask, like the concerned big brother that I am. "I heard you skipped school yesterday."

"I'm fine," Ethan replies, his dyed-black bangs covering his eyes. He starts to shut his door, but I stop him.

"Where were you yesterday?" I ask, hoping that I'm not about to make a huge mistake.

"…why do you care?" Ethan grumbles, once again trying to shut his door.

"Because it's not a good idea to miss school, and it's DEFINITELY not a good idea to work for H.Y.D.R.A.!" I exclaim, bracing myself for whatever might come next.

"What the… you think I'm that hooded teenager all you supers keep talking about?! Like, because I skip school sometimes, that automatically makes me evil?!"

"I hope not," I answer grimly. "Just tell me where you were yesterday," I say, trying to sound firm, but not too mean.

"MY GOSH, YOU'RE WORSE THAN OUR PARENTS!" Ethan exclaims. "If you must know, I ditched school right after I got off the bus and hung out at that coffee shop two streets away. There were other people there, if you want witnesses or something," he says, glaring at me.

I sigh. "I'm sorry for questioning you, I just really want to catch this person, and since you skipped school—"

"I don't care that you're questioning me! Just stop acting like you're so perfect! I know you skip school sometimes too!"

"Yeah, sometimes, like two or three times a year," I reply, a bit taken aback. I'm not perfect, and I'm not trying to be. "But Ethan, you've been skipping like once a week. You've gotta know that's bad for your grades man.

"It doesn't matter!" Ethan huffs, his breath blowing his bangs away from his face. "My grades suck anyways, and I suck at archery, and there's bullies, and—"Ethan suddenly clams up.

I frown. "Bullies? Ethan, are you getting bullied?"

Ethan quickly stares at the ground, his bangs falling down to cover his face once again. "Some idiots in my grade found out I'm Hawkeye and Mockingbird's son. They thought I'd be smart and good at archery, but I'm not, so they started teasing me. It's stupid! I never wanted to be a hero anyways! You and James, you just kept training and training, and now it's you and Juni since James stopped asking mom and dad to train him, but I never wanted that! I just wanted to be a normal kid, just have fun and stuff. I thought looking all tough and goth would make them leave me alone, but it seems to have just made things worse!" Ethan exclaims.

"Ethan... why didn't you tell me this?" I ask. "I would have made the bullies back off."

Ethan starts to answer, but just then, James enters the room. "I heard yelling. Is everything alright?" he asks, stifling a yawn.

"We're fine", Ethan and I mumble at the same time. "Are you alright though? You look tired."

"I just got up," James replies.

"Uh, James, it's two in the afternoon," I reply, trying not to laugh.

"Yeah, I don't feel too good, James grumbles. I take a closer look at his face and notice that his eyes look strange and he is sweating like he has a fever.

"Sorry to hear that," I reply, as James shuffles away like a zombie.

Once he is gone, I turn my attention back to Ethan. "Ethan, if you want to talk—" I start to say, but am interrupted by Ethan slamming the door in my face. Sighing, I pick my bow and arrows up off the ground and head back to my room.

While I wasn't able to help Ethan with his bully problem, I was able to learn one thing from our conversation: Ethan isn't the hooded villain. I don't have logical evidence just yet, since I haven't actually talked to anyone from the coffee shop Ethan claimed to be at, I just know. It's like the time Liberty and I questioned Dylan. Somehow, I was able to read Dylan's body language well enough to know if he was lying or not, and Liberty told me to trust my instincts. Those same instincts are now telling me that Ethan is innocent as well.

I feel terrible for questioning my brother about something he didn't do, and even worse that I still have no idea who the hooded villain is. I mean, my only other family member is James… oh shit!

James was staring at Noah's Vector gloves the night he came over. James was the person who told us to question Dylan, which ended up being a false lead. James's girlfriend even thought it necessary to tell us he was acting strangely yesterday… the day of the Expo! And unlike Ethan, who mostly wears tight, black clothing, James has quite a few hoodies. Could he be the hooded villain?

Just then, the phone rings. Since no one seems like they're about to answer it, I pick it up. "Hello?"

"Hi, this is the Stark High attendance office. Is Mr. Barton around?"

"One moment," I reply. I wait a few seconds, then do the best impression of dad that I can. "Hello?"

"Hello, Mr. Barton," the secretary says, either not realizing that I'm pretending to be my dad, or not caring. "We regret to inform you that your son James was not present for his last two classes yesterday. As you know, skipping class is a very serious—" I let the phone fall out of my hand in shock.

Just then, James enters the kitchen! "Hey," he says, nodding tiredly in my direction before grabbing some orange juice out of the fridge.

"James… why did you skip your last classes yesterday?" I ask, already dreading the answer.

James eyes widen for a fraction of a second, but then he regains his composure. "I skipped class to hang out with Brittney. Is that such a crime?" he asks, laughing.

I want to believe him, I really do. But something just doesn't feel right.

Then James sneezes, but instead of it being a normal sneeze, fire shoots out of his nose!

"WHAT THE—" I exclaim, before realizing what that means. James has fire powers. The hooded villain has fire powers. So that means….

I just stare at my brother in shock as he slowly sets the jug of orange juice down on the counter. "Should've minded your own business, little bro," he says sadly. Then I black out.

 **AN: So what do you think? Was the reveal worth the wait? I remember way back in the first story thinking it would be strange if exactly one child of each Avenger became a hero while the others didn't, which is why I decided to make Sam's sister Sarah a hero and Joe's brother James a villain in this story. Also, I was reading some Star Wars fanfiction back in January where Rey is Kylo Ren's sister (personally I think she's Luke's kid/ Kylo Ren's cousin), and thought it would be interesting to have siblings who fight for different sides. What do you think?**


	25. Big Dreams and Evil Plans

**Big Dreams and Evil Plans**

 **Liberty's POV**

"On your mark… get set… go!" I exclaim. And with that, Sam takes off running, trying to run a lap around my backyard as quickly as he can. He arrives back soon, barely out of breath, and I prepare to time Noah. Before long, it is my turn to run a lap, and Sam times me. "Nice job," Sam says, patting me on the back as I reach the finish. "Glad my girlfriend isn't a wimp."

"Thanks," I reply softly. With all the bad news these past few days, it's nice to know Sam cares about me.

Trying not to show the others how emotional I am, I look down at the times. My lap was the fastest, then Sam's. Having super-soldier speed sure comes in handy. Joe usually places third, but he isn't here, so Noah is the next fastest, then Laura, then Anne. The three of them would have been much faster if they used their powers, of course, but I wanted them to work out their legs, not their powers.

"Alright, let's take a quick breather in-between exercises to discuss the hooded villain. I was hoping Joe would be here to tell us if he figured out why the hoodie looked familiar to him, but since he's late, we might as well get started." It figures Joe would be late when it's really important for him not to be late. Laura is usually the worst offender for being late, but Joe is a close second.

"Actually, I'm getting worried about Joe," Laura says anxiously. "I texted him to ask if he wanted my mom to give us a ride, but he never responded. I figured he was on his way already, but since he's not here, now I'm starting to wonder. What if something happened to him?"

"That is suspicious," I agree. "The villain might have realized Joe was onto him, or Joe might just be running late. I say everyone should try calling him, and if he doesn't respond or show up here in ten minutes, we should look for him."

"Ok," Laura agrees nervously, the rest of our teammates agreeing as well.

We spend the next ten minutes alternating between calling Joe and running through an obstacle course, and at the end of ten minutes, Joe still hasn't been seen or heard from.

"Joe, where are you?" Laura whispers.

 **Joe's POV**

When I wake up, it is dark. As the events from earlier rush back to me, I worry that I've been laying on the kitchen floor all day while James gets into all sorts of trouble. Then I look around, and realize that I'm not in my kitchen, but in a cage in a dimly lit room!

"Ah, you have awakened," a voice says. Suddenly, lights turn on, and I am forced to squint for a few seconds before my eyes adjust to the light to reveal an elderly man in a lab coat looking at me from outside the cage. "Joe Barton, son of Hawkeye and Mockingbird," he says, pacing around a bit and revealing a Hydra logo on his sleeve.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO MY BROTHER?!" I yell, furious that James is a part of Hydra.

"Why don't you ask him?" the scientist says, stepping aside so that I can see James enter the room.

"JAMES! WHAT THE HELL?! WHY ARE YOU WORKING FOR HYDRA?!" I yell.

"The better question is, why are you working for S.H.I.E.L.D.?" James retorts. "They've known how to give people superpowers for a long time now, but they're too chicken. Hydra gives good people superpowers. They're where it's at!"

"Why do you even need superpowers?!" I exclaim. "Our parents have been teaching us spy skills and archery our whole lives. At least, they would have kept teaching you if you didn't ask to stop. I've managed to become a superhero with just those skills and a little tech knowledge. Why don't you focus on what you're good at instead of getting random powers?"

James sighs. "In case you forgot, you're the only one good at archery. The only thing I'm good at is spying on people and keeping secrets, which is why I was able to steal your guys's powers. I overhear you saying you'll be power training at Liberty's house and I think 'Great! I'll be there to snag some powers.'"

"But James, it's Hydra!" I exclaim, wishing I was outside the cage so I could knock some sense into his stupid head. "As in, the people who work for Red Skull, the superVILLAIN!"

James makes a face. "Yeah, I wasn't sure if I should work with them at first, but Doctor Kraus here is pretty chill. The worst thing is just having to come test my powers at annoying times when I'd rather be with my girlfriend, so that isn't too bad."

I stare at my brother in disbelief. "James, you just stole Pym Particles and beat up my girlfriend!" I exclaim. "Why, if I wasn't in this cage…."

"So?!" James exclaims, his tone of voice turning defensive. "If that's what it takes to be a hero, then that's what I'm going to do! I'm already beating you and all five of your friends in fights. With one or two more powers, I'll be the most powerful hero ever!"

"Why do you need powers? You already have good grades, you know how to talk to girls, and you're athletic. Why not just be a firefighter or something and be a hero that way?"

"Because anyone who's athletic and has training can be a firefighter. I don't want to be anyone. I want to be the best! But you," he sneers, "you seem content to be a boring sidekick, just like dad!"

"Dad isn't a sidekick!" I exclaim.

"Oh yeah? How many kids have you seen dress up like Hawkeye for Halloween? How many say they want to be like Hawkeye when they grow up? That's right, none! Everyone wants to be the suave Iron Man, or the bad-ass Thor, or the just Captain America, or even the Hulk, because he always wins fights. No one wants to be the stupid archer who belongs in Medieval England, who is way off on some rooftop somewhere missing out on most of the fight. If I kept training with dad, that's all I'd ever be. And that's all you are, which is why you can't stop me, and why your girlfriend keeps rescuing you instead of the other way around!"

I am stunned. The things he's saying… they're kind of true, especially the part about me not being able to protect Laura. "Teaming up with Hydra isn't right," I say quietly. I sound like a broken record at this point, but I don't know what else to say.

"Once I have all my powers, I'll make everything right!" James exclaims. "Later, looser!" he says, teleporting out of the room.

Once again, I am alone with the scientist named Doctor Kraus. I am torn between yelling at him to let me out of the cage and begging him to stop experimenting on my brother, but before I can decide, he leaves the room. Soon I hear him talking to James, although they're too far away for me to hear much of their conversation. Then I hear one of them dialing a phone, and I can't help but shudder at whatever evil plans may be about to unfold.

 **Liberty's POV**

I am just about to call Joe's parents and ask if they know what's going on, when Laura's phone rings. She looks at the caller ID, then smiles. "Joe, where have you been?" she asks, relief in her voice. Then her look changes to one of horror! "Ok," she whispers. "Ok," then, with shaking hands, she lowers the phone.

"What happened?" I ask, instantly on guard.

"It was the hooded villain. He said… he said he captured Sarah, and if we want her back, we have to meet him at some building with the address he texted me."

"WHAT?!" Sam yells. "I'LL KILL HIM!"

"What did his voice sound like?" I ask, fighting back my own panic. "Did his voice sound familiar?"

"No," Laura hiccups. "I mean, I don't know! He was using some voice filter thingie, so he sounded like Darth Vader, only not as menacing, so maybe like Kylo Ren or something, or maybe—"

"I get the idea," I say, not cutting her off to be rude this time, but because, in a situation like this, there is no time to waste. "Did he say anything about capturing Joe?"

"No, but he probably did," Laura says, whimpering.

"Let me see the address," I say, giving her something to do besides whimper. With a shaking hand, Laura hands me her phone. "That's not far from here," I say, looking at the address. "Alright, here's what we're going to do…."

 **AN: Is Hydra an acronym? Like, should it be H.Y.D.R.A.? I don't know.**

 **Anyways, here you got to see James's motives, which hopefully aren't too boring and make sense. Let me know what you think!**


	26. A Rescue Gone Wrong

**A Rescue Gone Wrong**

 **Liberty's POV**

"Alright, everyone in!" I exclaim, gesturing to my car. Then I remember there are four seats and five people. "Er, Noah, would you mind flying again? It would really help us out a lot."

"I'll fly," Laura says, turning into a bird and flying off before I have time to object.

"Alright, let's head out," I say, unlocking the car so everyone can get in, while at the same time hoping Laura knows what she's doing.

The drive to the meeting place is very stressful. Besides having the same problems we had on the drive to the Expo, with Anne telling me to turn too late and me having to turn around frequently, this time, Sam is also freaking out about his sister being kidnapped.

"HE BETTER NOT HURT HER! IF HE DOES, I'M GOING TO PUNCH HIM SO HARD THAT HE'LL SEE STARS!"

"I'm sorry this is happening, Sam. We'll rescue your sister, I promise!" I say.

"We better," Sam grumbles.

I feel bad that my boyfriend's sister got kidnapped, and want to do everything I can to help! Unfortunately, it's hard to comfort him while at the same time driving through busy New York traffic and listening to Anne telling me when to turn. I just hope I can live up to my promise of rescuing Sarah!

Finally, after a drive that seems to last forever, we arrive at the building. It is a large, one-story warehouse next to the ocean. It was likely a place where ships unloaded goods in the past, but now it is run-down, with paint peeling off the walls and holes in the roof.

"Everyone remember the plan?" I say quietly as we exit the car. I get a nod from Noah, Anne, and Sam, but Laura is nowhere to be found. "Laura?" I call, looking up at the sky, but there are no birds to be seen.

Just then, my phone vibrates. I open it up to reveal a text from Laura that says "sorry hav 2 look 4 joe brb"

I feel like screaming, but instead I just sigh. "Looks like Laura won't be helping us," I whisper, showing my teammates the message. I take a moment to think about how this changes the plan, then say "Ok, Noah, can you take the place of Laura in getting Sarah safely out of here?"

Noah nods.

"Ok then, the rest of the plan will remain the same. We can do this!" I exclaim, trying to sound more confident than I feel. After all, we have never won against the hooded villain before. How are we going to now, when he has yet another power and a hostage?

Cautiously, my teammates and I approach the building. As we draw nearer, I signal my teammates to spread out by gesturing with my hands the way spies do. Anne takes the left side of the building and Noah the right, staying out of sight, yet close enough to help if needed. Meanwhile, Sam and I walk straight into the building.

As we step inside, the first thing I notice is that, other than a few old crates piled in a corner, the warehouse appears empty. "We have come for negotiations! Show yourself!" I exclaim, loudly enough that my teammates outside should be able to hear and understand that the warehouse is empty.

We wait a few seconds, but nothing happens. "GIVE ME BACK MY SISTER!" Sam suddenly yells, his fists clenched and his hair sparking.

Just then, a quiet mumbling sound can be heard.

"THAT'S SARAH!" Sam yells. "SARAH, WHERE ARE YOU?!"

The mumbling sound continues, and Sam and I track it towards the pile of crates. We push aside a few crates to reveal Sarah sitting with her hands and feet tied and tape over her mouth!

"SARAH!" Sam yells, "Are you hurt?" he asks, quickly pulling the tape off her mouth.

"I'm bored!" Sarah exclaims. "This rescue game is taking forever!"

"Sarah, this isn't..." a game, is what I was going to say, but then I realize maybe it's best to pretend it's a game so she doesn't get scared. "Who else is playing?" I ask, hoping to find out more about the hooded villain, if he is indeed the person who captured her.

"Well, there's James, and the Cross Old Man, and James said you were invited, so now we can play!"

"James is here?" I ask, confused. A horrible thought pops into my head. Joe said the villain's hoodie looked familiar. What if James is the hooded villain? I try to push the thought away. After all, he was trying to help us catch the villain… right?

"Liberty, Sam, long time no see," James says, growing into existence next to us. I realize he must have been here the whole time, only ant sized. And that means…

"You're the hooded villain!" I exclaim.

Sam's eyes widen. "WHY YOU—" he says, trying to punch James, only for him to miss as James teleports away.

"I prefer the title 'Hooded Hero', but yes, that's me. Only took you half a year to figure out," he says, smirking. "I'm glad to know I'm smarter than you even without powers. And with them, I can beat all six of you! But you already know that," he says, grinning. "Unfortunately, my mentor, Dr. Kraus has never seen me in action, so I brought you all here so he can see," James says.

I look around, but I don't see anyone except James.

"Don't worry, he will see it all the same," James says, catching my gaze. "Sorry I had to kidnap Sarah to get you all here, but it worked. Speaking of which, come on out, everybody! I know you're all here, no need to hide!"

Anne cautiously enters the building, Noah right behind her. "What did you do to your brother?" I ask, barely controlling my fury. If he hurt his own brother…

"Joe?" James asks, sounding board. "He already lost to me. No need to drag him out here. I suppose Laura has gone to look for him," James says, noticing Laura's absence. "Oh well. More of you would look better for Hydra's propaganda video, but beating four of you will be good enough."

"WHY YOU!" Sam yells, trying to punch him, but missing as James teleports yet again… only this time, I run over to where he teleports and punch him before he has time to react. Unfortunately, I can't get another punch in, as James turns on his fire powers and flies to the ceiling… only to be greeted with a blast of energy to the face from Noah! "OWW!" James yells, falling back towards the ground. The fire coating him fades away, and he coughs up blood.

For a moment, he looks week and sickly… almost as though he is dying. I suddenly recall the report I read about the project omni test subject that died from being given too many powers. How many powers did he have? Six? James has four, and already he's not looking so great. As I watch, he sneezes, causing fire to shoot out of his unusually pale face.

Somehow, I don't get the feeling James wants to hurt people, he is just being tricked by Hydra into thinking he is doing the right thing. I can't help but think about how handsome he used to be, as compared to now, when he is just a pale mess lying on the floor.

"Don't trust Hydra," I say, trying to snap him out of his ways. "Whatever they are telling you is a lie! All of their previous Project Omni test subjects died from the side effects of having too many powers, and it looks like you're starting to sicken too. Come with us, and we'll protect you from Hydra!" I exclaim.

"Help me," James whispers, so quietly it is barely audible.

"How?" I ask, leaning in to hear him.

"Come closer," James whispers.

"DON'T!" Sam yells, expecting a trick.

I know James could be tricking me, but I don't care. If there is even a chance to save him from himself, then that's what I'm going to do. "How?" I ask, coming close enough that I could reach out and touch him.

"You're the one who needs saving," James whispers. Then he reaches out and burns me with fire!

I yelp as pain envelopes my right arm! "LIBS!" Sam yells, rushing over to me.

"I don't like playing rescue," Sarah whimpers nearby, causing Anne to come over and comfort her.

I turn my attention back to James and discover that in the confusion that ensued, he has managed to slip past us to the warehouse exit, where an elderly man in a lab coat is waiting.

"You get all that?" James asks.

"Yes!" the scientist exclaims gleefully. "And I have synthesized your final power!" he cheers.

James shifts his weight uncomfortably. "Actually, I think I'm good with these powers. Thanks anyways."

"Nonsense!" the scientist exclaims. "The more powers the better! You said so yourself!"

"Well, the thing is, I haven't been feeling too good lately. Maybe I should wait a few for more powers."

"THERE IS NO TIME TO WAIT! WE MUST ACT NOW!" the scientist yells. I watch with blurry eyes, tearing up from the pain, as the scientist suddenly lunges forward and jams a pill down James's throat!

"Hey! Not cool!" James exclaims, gagging slightly. "I told you to stop!" he yells.

"You should remember who it is who is in charge here," the scientist says.

"You said that this was voluntary! That I could stop at any time!" James exclaims.

"If you want me to keep giving you powers, I suggest you listen from now on," the scientist says triumphantly.

"WHY YOU PIECE OF SHIT!" James exclaims, his eyes narrowing… and turning green?!

"That would be my cue to go," the scientist says, taking note of James's eyes. "Good bye! Do your best to make the fight interesting, as Red Skull is watching!" With that, he tosses aside his bulky lab-coat to reveal he is wearing athletic clothing and a jet-pack underneath. He pushes a button on his jet-pack and takes off into the sky!

"James?" Anne whispers, suddenly afraid, and I think I know the reason why. Then the building explodes, and all hell breaks loose!


	27. One Big, Awkward Family

**One Big, Awkward Family**

 **Laura's POV**

I'm about to get in Liberty's car to rescue Sarah, when I get the text. "Joe isn't with you? He and James have been gone all afternoon. – Mockingbird"

I frown at the text that makes my suspicion grow. If the hooded teenager can capture Sarah, why not Joe? So when Liberty asks Noah to fly, I volunteer instead. Just as I am about to take off, my phone vibrates again. I turn into a bird and follow Liberty's car for a block, so Liberty will think I'm following, then I land on a rooftop and turn back to human form so I can read the text.

"Concerned now. James and Ethan both left school early yesterday. – Mockingbird"

Uh oh! What if Joe's brothers were kidnapped too? Or… could it be that one of them is the hooded villain? After all, Joe did say the hoodie looked familiar… nah. I think Joe would recognize if one of his brothers was the villain. Still, I don't like that Joe is missing. I think it's about time that I found him! But where should I even look?

I realize that there's only one way I can find out where Joe is quickly, and it's not going to be fun. "Oh, mighty King Odin! I am in great need of your all-seeing ways!" I yell. "Show me where Joe is, and I will be forever thankful!" I wait a few seconds, but nothing happens. "I will also buy you the best birthday gift ever!" I exclaim, hoping he is at least considering helping. "Just let me know when your birthday is, and, well, um…." I stop talking as I realize Odin will probably not help me, and I am just yelling from the top of a building like a lunatic.

Suddenly, a portal opens in the sky, and a man falls out of it, but he's not Odin, rather, he is… "Loki?" I exclaim, surprised my dad isn't in jail.

"Hello, Laura," Loki says, sounding unusually grim.

"So… what's up?" I ask, not sure if he heard me calling Odin, or if he is here for some other reason.

"I have found the arrow-shooter, let us free him," Loki says. "He is this way," Loki announces, turning into a raven and flying away.

I still don't entirely trust him, but since he is my best lead to finding Joe, I turn into a bird and follow him. Before long, we reach a building that is still sporting holes in it from Loki's previous attack on New York. Apparently, whoever used to work here didn't think the building was worth repairing, as it is now abandoned.

"Are you sure this is where Joe is?" I ask, turning back into my human form. "It doesn't look like anyone has been here for a while."

"The basement is intact," Loki insists, turning back into an Asgardian himself. "I have seen it with the help of Odin's powers. There is where your teammate is."

"Wait, Odin is helping you?" I ask, surprised.

"In a manner of speaking," Loki says, smirking.

"What did you do?" I ask, narrowing my eyes.

"There will be time to speak of it later. Do you want my help or not?"

"Fine," I grumble, walking towards the building. Inside, the building is a dusty, rubble-filled mess, but when we take the stairs to the basement, I am surprised to find a giant, well-lit lab, with new-looking equipment, and, in a cage in the corner…"Joe!"

"Laura!" Joe exclaims, getting up from his sleeping and/or thinking position. Then he stiffens. "What is HE doing here?" he asks, casting an angry glare at Loki.

"We're busting you out of here," I say, pointing to Loki when I say "we" to make it clear he is on our side.

"Well, in that case, bust away! I was trying to reshape this paper-clip I found in my pocket to pick the lock, but so far it hasn't worked."

Nice! It seems Joe wasn't sleeping after all.

"I think Doctor Kraus put the key to this cage in the next room over," Joe says. "I don't think he was expecting you to rescue me. You can start looking for them there."

"I have a better idea!" I exclaim, teleporting inside the cage, then teleporting out with Joe a second later.

"That works," Joe says, smiling slightly.

"Then let us be gone," Loki says. Suddenly, he teleports all of us up to the street in front of the building!"

"Wow that was a really far teleport!" I exclaim, impressed.

"Well, I am a god," Loki smirks. "Now, I must be off. You would do well to remember it was I who rescued you!" he exclaims, then a bifrost portal opens, and he disappears.

"Should I be concerned that Loki got out of jail?" Joe asks, once Loki is gone.

"Maybe, but right now we have bigger problems to worry about. The hooded teenager kidnapped Sarah."

"WHAT THE FUCK?!" Joe yells, startling me. He's usually cheerful and doesn't swear much, so it catches me off-guard.

"Um, was the hooded teenager mean to you?" I ask, not sure why he's so angry.

"OF COURSE HE WAS MEAN TO ME! HE'S… he's my brother, Laura. The hooded teenager is James," Joe says, the fight suddenly draining out of him. "I should have known it was him, should have tried to stop him…."

"It's not your fault," I reply, surprised. "I'm sorry to hear that. It must be hard to fight your brother."

"Don't be sorry, kick his butt!" Joe exclaims. "Let's go tell the others. Where are they?"

"They were on their way to rescue Sarah."

"Then let's join them!"

"Ok!" I cheer, before realizing I don't have a ride. "Is your grappling hook working alright? I could maybe fly there?"

"Yeah, I'm ready to go," Joe replies.

"Alright, here are the directions," I say, telling Joe where we are headed. "Stay safe!" I say, giving him a peck on the cheek, before turning into a bird and flying towards our destination. As I fly, I can't help worrying about how Joe is doing. It can't be easy finding out your brother is evil. It sure wasn't easy for me when I found out Loki is my dad. I can't help thinking what would happen if I were to marry Joe—not that I'm planning to marry him soon, mind you! Just… a family with two heroes, two villains, and then randomly my normal mom would just be so weird!

I also can't help but marvel at how Joe, a teenager with no superpowers, is able to fly around with just the tools he made with his hands. Unfortunately, I soon find myself marveling at another strange sight: some guy with a jet pack. Why there is some random old man with a jet pack, I don't know, but since we are just one building away from our destination, I figure it can't be good.

"HEY!" Joe exclaims, but the man zooms past him before Joe can stop him. It's probably for the best though, if the guy wants to fly away from where Sarah is being held captive instead of fighting us, then that's a good thing. Maybe we're winning the fight!

I look around for clues as to what is going on, and a white sheet catches my eye. Upon closer inspection, I realize it is actually a lab coat that the guy with the jet pack left behind. With my birds-eye vision, I am able to spot the Hydra logo on the lab coat's shoulder. Why Hydra would hire some old man who flies away at the first sign of trouble, I don't know. I mean, is he an agent of Hydra or Doofinshmirtz Evil Incorporated?

Too late, I realize the scientist was smart to run, because the building explodes! But that's not the worst of it. The truly terrifying part is who… or what… caused the explosion….

 **AN: So this is kind of the climax, just five-ish more chapters and then the story will end. I think I said at some point I would finish this story before summer break. Right…. Anyways, it will be done soon.**


	28. Hulk vs Hulk

**Hulk vs Hulk**

 **Anne's POV**

I watch in horror as my worst fear unfolds right in front of my eyes: James turns into a Hulk! Yet the tragedy doesn't stop there, as James, who is already as green and muscular as my dad, continues growing upwards. As his head reaches the ceiling, he doesn't stop growing, rather, his thick head creates a hole in the roof, made wider shortly after as his shoulders follow suit, and all the while, he is still growing! He just keeps on growing, until he is approximately the same size as the nearby skyscrapers and/or Godzilla! The only good news in all this is that his pants have somehow miraculously grown with him. Still, that is little to cheer, as we will all likely be dead soon.

"James must have the Giant Man type of Pym Particles as well as the Ant Man type," Liberty says, and I marvel at her ability to stay calm in this situation, especially as she is still clutching her injured arm. "That means he has five powers, just one less than what killed the last Project Omni test subject."

"WHAT?!" Joe exclaims, frantically looking at Liberty for an explanation, but Liberty turns her attention to James instead.

"James! You can fight this!" Liberty yells. "I know you don't want to hurt us!"

Upon hearing her words, James, who was swaying around as though still getting used to his new height, suddenly locks eyes with Liberty, a low growl escaping from his throat!

"DON'T GROWL AT MY GIRLFRIEND!" Sam yells. "The Hydra scientist made you this way. FIGHT HIM!"

James glares at Sam for a second, before seeming to take his advice by sprinting away.

"SAM! WHY DID YOU DO THAT?!" Liberty yells.

"What?" Sam asks, taken aback. "I'm not just going to stand there and let him hurt you!"

"Where is the scientist?" Liberty asks Sam, her voice edged with fear.

"I don't know!" Sam exclaims, getting annoyed. "He could be anywhere in the… the city," Sam says, his eyes widening as the realization hits.

Everyone's eyes lock on to the retreating form of James-Hulk as he stomps towards the center of New York City, crushing cars, bikes, and road signs with each footstep!

"Congratulations, Sam, you just unleashed a giant Hulk Monster on the city," Liberty says, but she sounds more scared than angry.

"I DIDN'T MEAN TO!" Sam exclaims.

"I know," Liberty replies, putting a comforting hand on Sam's shoulder, "but it has been done."

Yes, it has been done, but it's not Sam's fault, it's mine! I was the one who let James steal my hair. I was the one who just stood there during the mall and expo incidents while my teammates were all fighting to stop James from getting more powers. And now, I will be the one who just sits here, struggling to stay calm, as the city crumbles around me and my teammates fight to the death!

"I want to go home!" Sarah wails, bringing my attention back to the present. I has been so lost in my fears of what could happen that I forgot Sarah is standing next to me.

"It's ok Sarah," I say, but my voice sounds too panicky to be convincing. Sarah takes one look at my face, screams, and runs away from me! I realize my eyes must be turning green due to the stress.

Sarah keeps running, until Laura blocks her way with a hug. "It's ok," Laura says, giving Sarah a hug and smiling at her to help her to calm down.

"You ok?" Laura asks, walking over to me while Sam continues to comfort Sarah.

"Yes," I reply, but the answer sounds fake even to me. I can't help but wonder if Laura is trying to comfort me because she's my friend, or because she can teleport away the quickest should I happen to Hulk out. With my worst fear coming true, everything feels so surreal, like I'm trapped in a nightmare! If only I wasn't so useless, maybe this wouldn't have—

"Hey!" Laura exclaims, causing me to snap back to the present. I realize my eyes were probably turning green again.

"Sorry," I mumble. Then I realize something I should have realized a long time ago: Laura is here! "Oh, Laura! Did you find Joe?" I ask, remembering that she left to find him.

"Yes…" Laura says slowly, "he's been here for a while now," she says, pointing to where Joe and Liberty are having a hushed conversation. "You didn't notice? Anne, are you sure you're alright? We could maybe handle this while you—"

"I'm fine!" I exclaim, causing my teammates to all turn around and look at me.

Liberty purses her lips. "Alright, this is as good a time as any to start following James. I just called my dad and he'll be able to help us out in a few minutes. Right now, our goal is just to protect civilians from any damage James might cause, but if he doesn't tire of his rampage soon, we will need to stop him. That will involve Anne hulking out and tiring him out in a fight.

"R-Right," I reply, now feeling more scared than frustrated. How can I win a fight against a giant Hulk with way more powers than me? There's no way I could win! But what's worse is if I did win, because then Joe would hate me forever for beating up his brother! It's a loose-loose situation. Then there's the side effects of Hulking out, which are: causing destruction to the city, possibly attacking the wrong person, possibly hurting people I care about—

"Anne, are you coming?" Liberty asks, I realize that everyone else is already either in Liberty's car or getting ready to fly to the fight.

"Yes," I reply, hurrying up and getting in the car. Fortunately, I don't have to worry about reading Liberty directions this time, because James is so huge that we can see him even though he is blocks away. My stomach tenses up just thinking about fighting him, yet before I know it, we are just one block away from him. "Let's do this!" Liberty exclaims, running out of the car and charging towards James, while I follow more reluctantly.

We reach James-Hulk just in time to see him kick a car with people in it down the street! Fortunately, everyone survives, because we can hear their screams. Unfortunately, the car doors are now so dented that they can't get out, and James-Hulk looks ready to kick again!

"Hey, Troll Face, why don't you pick on someone your own size?!" Laura yells, teleporting up to James-Hulk's face and bopping him on the nose. James-Hulk tries to grab Laura, but she teleports out of his reach, then turns into a bird, causing James to roar and chase after her. Meanwhile, Noah flies over to the car and uses his robot strength to rip the doors off so that everyone can get out.

Unfortunately, while Laura is able to lead James away from the injured people, she is not able to stop him from causing more destruction. Assured of the car passengers' safety, Liberty and I turn around to look at James just in time to see him stomping his way towards Liberty's car… which has Sarah inside! Sam told her to stay in the car so she'd stay safe, but it seems like just the opposite is happening!

"SARAH!" Sam yells, causing Laura to turn back into human form and teleport Sarah to safety. Fortunately, the two of them are now safe. Unfortunately, Laura looks exhausted, like she might be done using her powers for a while. Also… "My car!" Liberty wails, as James' foot comes down and crushes her car. Liberty sighs. "Oh well. I'm just glad you're safe," she says, smiling at Laura and Sarah.

Sarah, however, is not smiling. "WAAAAAH!" she cries, tears spilling down her cheeks.

"WHAT THE HELL, JAMES, YOU MADE MY SISTER CRY!" Sam roars. "IF YOU THINK YOU CAN GET AWAY WITH THAT, YOU'RE IN FOR A SHOCKER!" With that, Sam raises his talisman in the air and shoots a bolt of lightning right at James's head!

Unfortunately, the lighting doesn't seem to hurt James, just make him angrier. As I watch, James shoots a ball of fire at Sam, which Sam dodges, then James keeps on using his fire powers until he is completely covered in fire! Once again, the only good news seems to be that James's pants are miraculously still intact.

"James is scary! I want to go home!" Sarah wails.

"I know, Sarah. It's ok, you don't have to cry," Sam says, showing a rare softer side as he comforts his little sister. Sarah, however, shows no signs of stopping. Suddenly, the previously sunny sky clouds over, and it starts to rain! James-Hulk growls in frustration as the fire coating his body starts to sizzle out due to the rain.

"Yeah, that's right! Keep crying, you little crybaby!" Laura yells. I am shocked for a second, until I realize what Laura is trying to do. Sure enough, Sarah's eyes widen at the harsh words, causing her to cry harder… and an even bigger downpour to rain on James, effectively extinguishing his fire!

All seems well as James stares at his steaming arms in frustration… until he opens his palms and shoots jets of water out of them! Liberty manages to dodge his blast, but I am not so lucky. I feel my body being pushed back due to the force of the blast, until I slam into a building. Pain erupts in my back, and I cry out in pain. My vision is swimming and turning green, but I force it back. No way am I hurting my teammates!

As my vision clears, I turn my attention to my teammates to see how they are doing. James-Hulk starts charging away again to look for the scientist, crushing more cars in the process. He is not able to crush many, however, before Joe whips out his grappling hook and shoots it at a building right in front of James's foot. Instead of swinging on the hook though, Joe starts wrapping the near end around a lamppost, creating a hazard for James to trip over. But before he can finish knotting the rope, James rips the hook out of the building, and tugs on it, causing Joe to fly through the air towards him!

"Hold on!" Liberty exclaims, as Noah shoots through the air to catch Joe. Liberty stares at James with fear visible on her face. "He has water powers," she whispers. "Six powers… oh James, what have you done to yourself?"

I don't know why James having six powers is anything significant, except that with every power, he becomes harder to fight. However, I do understand what Liberty means when she turns to me and says "We need to stop James from hurting more people, and five of us aren't going to cut it. Anne… it's time for you to Hulk out."

Yes, I understand the words. I just wish I didn't. Whenever I Hulk out, I lose control. All I know for sure is that I'm going to smash something, but whether I'm going to smash a baddie or a friend, I have no way of knowing. My dad has been trying to teach me how to lock on to only one target to let my anger out on, but I still sometimes end up harming him instead. What if I turn on my teammates instead, and they have two Hulks to deal with?

Yet as I watch James punch Noah out of the sky, I realize that I will have to risk it. I take a deep breath… then let it out in a huff of annoyance! I think about how long we've been waiting to catch the hooded villain, how frustrating it was to find out he is Joe's brother hiding in plain sight… and I feel myself growing larger… and larger…

GREEN GIRL SMASH! SMASH PUNY JAMES! SMASH JAMES TOE! TOO BIG! GREEN GIRL JUMP, SMASH FACE, JAMES FIST, BIG PUNCH! OWW!

"Green Girl, you're too small, you're not going to win if you keep jumping into the air like that. Try to knock his feet out from under him," BLOND GIRL SAY. BLOND GIRL ANNOYING, BUT JAMES MORE ANNOYING! GREEN GIRL SMASH! JAMES FIST! GREEN GIRL SMASH INTO BUILDING! BUILDING NO MATCH! GREEN GIRL STAND UP! GREEN GIRL SMASH!

 **AN: So there is literally no reason James's pants are able to grow to the size of a skyscraper and not burn in fire other than I thought it would be too awkward if they didn't, lol. Also, I wanted to try writing from Anne's Hulk form point of view, but decided it was too confusing to do for more than a few sentences.**


	29. The Passing of the Shield

**The Passing of the Shield**

 **Liberty's POV**

 **AN: Warning! There is a character death in this chapter.**

I watch as James hits Green Girl, causing her to face-plant into a building. She gets up quickly, but James-Hulk throws several fireballs, forcing her to dodge instead of hitting him. The fact that she is slowly losing the fight is bad enough, but then I realize that some of the fireballs that James threw have hit a building and caught it on fire!

I struggle to remain calm as I check the time on my cellphone. My dad said that he could make it here in twenty minutes, so where is he? I groan as I realize I am relying on my dad yet again to help me out. It's bad enough that I couldn't get into the Expo without my dad's help, but now the six of us can't even take down one immature villain? I hate this! I've been training and training, and my teammates have been training, yet once again, we need help. I can only imagine what the reporters will say: "'Mature' High School Hero twiddles her thumbs at Hulk while waiting for her daddy to save her." Like, ugh!

I decide to pass the time by putting out the burning building. "Sarah, sweetie, do you think you can put out those flames?" I ask, heading over to where Sam is trying to comfort Sarah as she continues to cry.

` "I CAN'T DO ANYTHING RIGHT!" Sarah wails, rain splattering down on the three of us.

"Sure you can," I coax.

"Yeah, you did a great job hitting targets when we were camping," Sam pipes up. "Just imagine the fire is a target. You'll hit it for sure!"

"I don't know…." Sarah sniffles, the rain fading away along with her sadness. Meanwhile, the fire is only growing larger! I realize I have to do something, and fast!

"IF YOU DON'T PUT OUT THAT FIRE, EVERYONE IN THE BUILDING WILL BURN TO DEATH!" I yell.

Sarah gasps, and stares at the building in horror! I know that was harsh of me to say, but I'd rather make a kid cry than let a building full of people die. Leaders have to make tough choices like that.

Sure enough, Sarah soon starts crying again, and with it comes more rain. Sarah continues to stare at the building, a deluge of rain following her gaze, until the flames are completely doused. While I still feel bad for making Sarah cry, I am glad that the people are safe.

I am even gladder to see a helicopter approaching and my dad jumping out of it without a parachute. He drops close to a building, using his shield to slow his fall, before putting his shield under him and using it like a sled as he skids down the balcony right over the building entrance before falling the last few feet to the street.

"Dad!" I call, walking over to him. "I've been letting Green Girl hold off James-Hulk while we keep the city safe. Do you have a plan?" I ask, knowing any plan my dad can come up with will be better than mine.

"Is my dad coming?" Sam asks before my dad can reply.

"I'm afraid not," dad replies to Sam. "He left for Asgard a few hours ago and no one has heard from him since. The rest of your parents aren't likely to show either, since they are fighting zombie plants on the west coast. I stayed behind for personal reasons, and it looks like it's a good thing I did!"

I frown as I realize dad must have stayed behind because he was mourning mom. Now he'll have to fight a similar supervillain as the one that killed her. All I know is, we better stop him!

"Zombie plants?!" Laura exclaims. "You mean they get to play real-life Plants vs Zombies? Aww, why wasn't I invited?"

Dad clears his throat. "Anyways, they will not likely make it back in time for this fight, so let's try to tire James-Hulk out while also making sure citizens stay safe."

"Ok," I agree, secretly pleased that he didn't come up with a better plan then mine, meaning I had a good plan.

We all turn our attention to James, just in time to see him throw a ball of fire into Anne's face!

"No! Don't hurt Anna!" Sarah exclaims, causing my dad to turn around in surprise.

"Sarah is here?!" he asks, looking concerned.

"Yes," I reply guiltily. "James Hulked out right after we rescued her, so we didn't have time to drop her off."

"Well then that is our first priority," dad says. He whips out his cellphone and starts calling whoever was flying the helicopter to come back. "Could one of you who can fly get Sarah to the copter?"

"On it!" Joe exclaims, holding on to Sarah and using his amazing archer eyesight to latch his grappling hook onto the helicopter and pull them both up. I can't tell if he was trying to show off to Laura or just get away from fighting his brother James. I figure it is the former reason as the helicopter drops down to let Joe off on the roof of a building within arrow-shooting distance of James-Hulk.

Unfortunately, it seems the helicopter is a bit too close to James-Hulk, because he turns around upon hearing it and tries to grab it out of the sky! Fortunately, Joe shoots an arrow at James just then, causing him to miss the helicopter. Unfortunately, this causes James's attention to turn to Joe. James-Hulk grabs Joe off the building and looks about to squish him!

Just then, a bright light shoots out of the helicopter right into James's eyes, effectively blinding him. James roars and raises his hands to shield his face from the glare, dropping Joe in the process. Noah flies up to catch him, but it appears he didn't even need to, as Joe is able to latch his grappling hook onto the side of the building to slow his descent.

"Way to go Sarah!" Laura cheers.

"Nice job, sis!" Sam adds. Apparently Sarah has light powers as well as rain ones.

Unfortunately, the distraction doesn't last long, as James roars, shooting fire at everyone and hitting Noah! Noah screams as his suit starts to burn up around him! Thinking quickly, I use my super-strength to tear the top off a fire hydrant, sending water shooting up in the air. Noah quickly runs over and jumps into the water, which puts the fire out, but the damage has already been done.

"My suit is busted!" Noah exclaims, "And I don't have any tools around to fix it with."

"It's ok, at least you're not hurt," I say, trying to keep things positive by pointing out that Noah wasn't burned. Still, as I look around, I can't help feeling despair. Noah is out of the fight, and Laura and Sam look exhausted from using their powers so much. Sarah shouldn't have been here in the first place, and while Joe still has his arrows and grappling hook, he looks like he is in shock from his brother almost killing him, and if it comes down to it, I don't know if he will be able to fight James. That leaves only me, my dad, and Anne in fighting condition, as soon as Anne is done catching her breath.

Wait a sec! I look over at Anne in her Green Girl form as she catches her breath. If Green Girl is catching her breath, then where is James-Hulk? "Green Girl! Where is James?" I ask.

Green Girl shrugs her shoulders in a surprisingly non-threatening way, considering she is a Hulk.

"He can't just disappear!" I exclaim, confused. Then it hits me. "Oh. My. Gosh! His ant form!" I exclaim. "HE'LL HAVE EVEN MORE POWER WHEN TINY, AND YET WE CAN'T SEE HIM!" I yell, panicking.

"It'll be ok, we'll get through this!" my dad reassures everyone. "He's just small, not invisible. Everyone, look around and see if you can spot him."

My teammates and I frantically search the ground for any sight of James, yet none of us spot him. Suddenly, Green Girl lets out a ferocious yell! At first, I worry she is about to attack us, until I look up and see her flailing body shooting upwards into the sky! I realize with a shiver that inch-tall James-Hulk was able to kick Green Girl, who even taller and bulkier than an average human, up into the sky! If he can toss even the strongest member of our team around like that, what hope do the rest of us have?

"Where was Green Girl standing?" my dad asks, giving me something to think about besides my fear. "James-Hulk will be somewhere near there. Try to get closer to the area, but not too quickly now! You don't want him to kick you the way he did Green Girl."

Cautiously, the six of us approach the area Green Girl was kicked from. As we approach, I can't help but think of how terribly we keep losing against James. Maybe if we trained better, or if I could think of better plans, then we wouldn't keep losing to him. Or maybe, if I was paying attention to more than just how hot James was, I would have realized he's the hooded teenager. Maybe—

"NO!" dad suddenly yells, shoving me to the side and sticking his shield out in front of us. I watch helplessly as my dad suddenly shoots straight up into the air! Yet the danger doesn't stop there, as James suddenly grows to his giant size, grabs my dad out of the air, and slams him down onto the pavement!

"Hold on!" I exclaim, running over to help my dad, but before I can get there, James-Hulk bursts into flames, then slams his foot down on top of him, his claw-like toenails digging into my dad's skin!

I reach the two of them just as James-Hulk lifts his foot and roars. The hair on the back of my neck stands up as I realize this roar sounds different, not a roar of anger, but a roar of triumph!

"D-Dad?" I call, for the first time afraid that my dad might have lost the fight. I rush over to him and gasp! He has cuts all over from being pounded into the ground, and burns from the flames, yet that is not what worries me, since he has survived worse. What worries me is the gaping hole in his chest that James-Hulk's toenail carved into him, around which a pool of blood is forming! As I watch my dad, the mighty Captain America, cough up blood, a feeling of dread fills me.

"Liberty," dad croaks, seeing me looking at him.

"Don't talk!" I exclaim, fearful of how much blood my dad coughed up just trying to say my name.

"It's ok," dad replies, his eyes lolling slightly as more blood spurts out of his mouth.

"NO! IT'S NOT OK!" I yell, terrified of how calm my dad sounds, like he's giving up. I watch with horror as my dad's shirt can no longer contain the blood from his chest wound, and it starts trickling away from him in miniature red rivers. "I CAN HELP!" I exclaim, frantically unzipping my coat, my shaking fingers fumbling as I try to tie it around my dad's chest to stop the bleeding.

My dad smiles weakly. "I know you can. You always have." Suddenly, he starts to sit up slightly, despite my protests. "But there are many heroes in the world," he says, looking me in the eyes, despite the pain it must cause him. "Just be yourself." With a shuddering breath, Captain America lays back down and stops moving.

"Dad?" I whisper, hoping that this is some kind of trick. My dad, the famous Captain America isn't… he can't be… "DAD!" I yell, shaking him frantically, wanting him to wake up, to say his lack of responding was just a trick to deceive the enemy, something, ANYTHING! "I WON'T LOSE ANOTHER PARENT!" I yell, continuing to try to shake him awake, until my arms start shaking too badly and I collapse onto his shoulder and cry.

I can hear Sam shouting something, but I don't care, hear James-Hulk roaring, but I don't care. My dad, Captain America, is dead. Nothing matters anymore!

I bury my face in his shoulder and cry, thinking of all the good times we had together, my dad giving me piggyback rides when I was a kid, playing hide-and-seek, eating dad's birthday cake as we waited for the Fourth of July fireworks to start. Now dad will never have another birthday. And it's all because of me! If I had been paying attention to where I was walking, instead of worrying about whether or not I'm a good enough leader, dad would still be alive!

I cry harder as I realize that was not the only mistake I made. All the memories I had of my dad and I spending time together were in the past. I cringe as I remember telling my dad to leave me alone as I trained with the punching bags just a few days ago. Now, all I want is for him to come back! Sure, he was away on missions a lot, but if I wasn't so busy, maybe some of my happy memories with him would be recent. Instead, I chose to fill all my time with clubs and activities I don't even like, all because I'm worried about what strangers might think of me.

Briefly, I wonder what people will think of me now. I don't think anyone would blame me for mourning my dad even though James-Hulk is still on the loose. If I didn't rejoin the fight, people would understand. It's not easy losing a loved one. Besides, what chance do we have of stopping him now? The greatest superhero ever, Captain America, is dead. I am nowhere near as good at fighting as he is, and for all I know, my teammates are already dead!

This thought makes me so sad that I resume crying into my dad's shoulder. I cry harder as I realize his shoulder is losing its warmth. It's a reminder that I can't stay here forever, but where can I go? I could run away from James-Hulk, away from the fight we will only lose. No one would blame me… but I would blame me. I can't just leave my teammates there to die. If my teammates want to stop this monster, they need a leader, and I will not abandon them!

"I'm sorry," I whisper to my dad, gently closing his eyes. "I wasn't a very nice daughter. I was always crabby because I was always worrying about what other people thought of me. But right now, I need to be there for my friends," I say, starting to walk away, when a metallic glint catches my eye. I realize that, while my dad didn't fare well in the battle, his shield is still intact. Hesitantly, I pick it up. I find the metal to be sturdy, and while it would be heavy to lift for an average person, with my super-strength, it feels barely as heavy as a textbook.

"I hope you don't mind if I borrow this," I say to my dad, even though he is gone. "It's to protect my friends." Yet as I walk towards James, who I can easily spot since he is still in his giant form, I can't help but worry that they are already dead. Yet when I turn the corner onto the street James-Hulk is smashing, I am pleasantly surprised to see Green Girl still fighting him. At least one of my teammates is alive.

Suddenly, an arrow with a rope attached to it imbeds itself in James-Hulk's skin. James-Hulk roars and looks towards the direction that the arrow was fired from, only for the sky to cloud over and lightning to strike James-Hulk! I hear cheering and look up towards a rooftop to see Joe, Sam, Laura, and Noah high-fiving! They are all alive! And Sam managed to shoot two lightning-bolts without fainting!

A loud roar causes me to turn my attention back to James-Hulk, who is using his fire-powers, yet sparking slightly. As I watch, his flames start to flicker, and he shrinks a few inches. James-Hulk growls and puts his hands to his head as though he has a headache. Then he lowers his hands, and his flames and full height return.

"Looks like his powers are wearing off!" I hear Laura yell from the rooftop. "Green Girl, keep wearing him out! Joe, if you could keep shooting arrows at him whenever he corners Green Girl like that, that would be great. I know it's hard hitting your brother, but I'm pretty sure he can take it, and he's a major asshole, so he deserves it!"

I realize with a shock that Laura has taken over leading the team… and she's not half bad!

Just then, a bunch of people evacuating a building decide to take selfies next to the fight instead of running away! James-Hulk sees them and roars, leaping into the air as he prepares to crush them under his foot!

"MOVE!" I yell, running towards the stupid people and shoving myself in front of them. Too late, I realize that this is the same way my dad died, defending useless little me. Useless. That's all I am. I raise dad's shield in a desperate attempt to save myself, but no that there is no way a tiny shield can protect me from a giant foot. I brace for impact, and soon enough a horrible screeching sound fills my ears as James-Hulk's claw-like toe scrapes against my shield. Yet the pain never comes.

Cautiously, I open my eyes, and see that Anne has managed to pull James-Hulk away from me despite her lesser size and strength! "JAMES-HULK NO HURT FRIENDS!" Green Girl yells, jumping up and down on James-Hulk's head, which is easy for her to do now that James-Hulk's flames are out. As I watch, his form once again shrinks, this time even more than before, until a few seconds pass, and he returns to his full giant height.

The combination of not dying and James-Hulk's powers waning fills me with hope, something I never thought I'd feel again. My hope intensifies as my teammates on the building spot me and cheer me on. Maybe, just maybe, we can protect the city!


	30. What it Means to be Worthy

**What it Means to be Worthy**

 **Sam's POV**

I can't believe it! Captain America, the toughest guy here, is laying on the ground in a pool of blood!

"DAD!" Liberty yells, running over to him and shaking him. "I WON'T LOSE ANOTHER PARENT!" she yells.

While I know she's sad, I wish she would shut up, because now James-Hulk's attention is on her! "I'M COMING LIBS!" I shout, preparing to stand between her and James-Hulk for as long as I can! He's not taking my Libs without a fight!

James-Hulk roars in response, heading my way, but before our fight can really get started, Joe shoots him with arrows! It doesn't do much damage, since James-Hulk is so huge, but it is enough to distract him from Liberty. James-Hulk charges towards the building Joe is on, only for Joe to swing away on his grappling hook and Green Girl to step out from behind the building!

As the two Hulks keep on fighting, I look over to Liberty and frown. She is just sitting on the ground next to her dad. Neither of them are moving. "Libs, you ok?" I ask, but she doesn't respond. She's just staring off into space and doesn't seem to notice anything that is going on.

I want to protect my girlfriend, but I also want to smash James-Hulk's ugly face in for hurting the Cap. "Back in a sec!" I tell Liberty, worried when she doesn't respond. I'm really going to beat James's face in now!

I turn the corner and see James-Hulk has cornered Green Girl, Joe is just standing on a random building, Noah is standing on the ground uselessly because his robot suit is broken, and Laura is standing there looking exhausted. I'm not feeling 100% either, since I already let loose a huge bolt of lightning, but there's no way I'm letting James-Hulk get away with making my girlfriend cry!

"THIS IS FOR MAKING MY GIRLFRIEND CRY!" I yell, charging towards James-Hulk.

"Sam, no!" Laura yells. "We need to fight as a team!"

"THEN JOIN ME!" I yell, sick of how wimpy she is.

"Laura is right," Joe agrees. "We've been losing because we keep trying to outfight a giant Hulk. We need to outsmart him instead. Although my actual brother isn't stupid…." Joe mumbles, talking to himself now.

"I don't know, working for Hydra seems rather stupid to me," Laura deadpans. "Anyways, Joe, do you have any rope arrows?"

"Yes, but I doubt they're strong enough to hold my b—a giant Hulk, he'd break it in two seconds," Joe says sadly.

"Two seconds may be all we need… if Sam can land his lightning, that is.

"OF COURSE I CAN!" I yell, annoyed that I had to stop mid-charge to say so. I get even more pissed off when I realize James-Hulk didn't even notice my heroic charge towards him, since he was fighting Green Girl instead!

Noah scratches his head. "Not to be a downer, but the lightning didn't work too well the first time. Why would it hurt James-Hulk now?"

"An excellent question," Laura replies, "one you would know the answer to if you were watching the fight as closely as I am. Look!" Laura exclaims suddenly, the rest of us following her gaze. As I watch, James-Hulk covers his head with his hands as though he has a headache, and his flames fizzle out. They reappear after just a second though.

"See that?" Laura asks. "James-Hulk's powers are wearing off! All we have to do is wear him out a bit and he should de-hulk and we'll be fine! And I have just the plan to wear him out!"

Before I know it, all of us except Green Girl are on top of a building, thanks to Joe's grappling hook. Green Girl is keeping James-Hulk distracted, so he doesn't notice Joe's arrow coming towards him until it's too late! Of course, an arrow wound on a giant the size of James-Hulk is barely a paper cut, but if lightning were to get in that wound….

I raise my talisman to the sky, and feel the energy coursing through me. I will not faint! I can make lightning strike twice! Before James-Hulk can pull the arrow out, I strike! Lightning shoots down the wire attached to the arrow, becoming more concentrated as it travels, or so Noah claims, until it hits James-Hulk and lights him up like a Christmas tree!

James-Hulk roars in agony, music to my ears! I watch proudly as his flames go out again, and this time, he even shrinks a bit! If Joe's arrow was barely a papercut, my bolt must have been like a nasty bee-sting!

Unfortunately, the reason I was thinking of bees might be because my head is buzzing from shooting two lightning bolts in such a short amount of time. Before I can even celebrate my new record, I collapse to the ground. However, it seems it's a good thing I did. As Laura and my teammates cheer and work out another plan, I am the only one to see Liberty approaching on the street below. I'm about to call out to her, when suddenly, a bunch of assholes get too close to James-Hulk and Liberty has to go protect them!

"I'M COMING LIBS!" I yell, grabbing Joe's grappling hook and leaping off the building. It isn't until I'm already falling that I realize just how woozy I am from casting the lightning… and that I've never used a grappling hook before. What can I say? I'm a leap first, ask questions later kind of guy. My teammates' screaming from the rooftop hurts my ears, so I start to tune it out, toon the sinking feeling in my stomach out. So tired… just want to rest….

But there's something I have to do. What is it? I force my bleary eyes open just in time to see James-Hulk charging towards Liberty, but he seems to be growing larger? Then I realize that James is the same height, but I'm falling! AAAAAAAAAH! I NEED TO SHOOT THIS GRAPPLING HOOK!

I try to shoot at a ledge slightly above me, but I must be falling faster than I realize, because when I shoot the grappling hook, the ledge is way above me and I miss! The ground is getting close now. I only have one more shot!

Forcing my eyes open as wide as they will go, I shoot the grappling hook one last time. It wobbles around for a second before latching firmly onto a ledge, and not a moment too soon, as the ground is only ten feet below me! The grappling hook manages to slow my fall enough that I survive, but I still hit the ground hard, not to mention the whiplash from the grappling hook latching. I shake it off though, being a tough, masculine guy like that. I stand up, ready to rescue Liberty, ONLY TO WATCH JAMES-HULK'S FOOT COME CRASHING DOWN ON HER?!

"NOOOOOOOOOOO!" I yell, sprinting over to her, only to watch helplessly as James-Hulk lowers his foot, Captain America's shield, which Liberty is covering her head with, is about to break… only for James-Hulk to get dragged away at the last second by a furious Green Girl! BUT GREEN GIRL IS NOWHERE NEAR AS FURIOUS AS I AM! I CAN'T PROTECT MY GIRLFRIEND! I CAN BARELY PROTECT MYSELF! WHAT THE HELL KIND OF HERO AM I?!

"Sam?" Liberty whispers, and just like that, my mood brightens.

"LIBS! YOU'RE ALRIGHT!" I cheer, hugging her and never wanting to let go, because she almost died a few seconds ago, and I never want to lose her!

"I am," Liberty whispers, "but my dad isn't."

"Captain America?" I ask, surprised. I suddenly realize that Liberty is holding his shield. I figured he let her borrow it or something, but now… "He's not, he can't be—"

"He's dead," Liberty whispers.

"Libs!" I exclaim, shocked. "I'm so sorry!" Now I really don't want to let go of her! Liberty crumples into my arms, sobbing, and then I crumple right along with her! Now that my adrenaline rush from trying to rescue her is gone, the full weariness from casting lightning comes back, causing me to fall to the ground and taking Liberty with me. I just lay there for a few seconds, trying not to faint, until a shadow looms over me. Looking up, I see it is James-Hulk's foot about to crush us! Liberty isn't safe after all!

"I never thought I would get killed by a giant foot," Liberty whispers. "That's a shocker."

I am shocked to hear Liberty using my own catchphrase. It's rather cute. Rage courses through me as I realize I will never get to hear her say it again! As James-Hulk's foot lowers, my life flashes before my eyes. All those dumb fights I started just to prove I was tough. Yeah, right! Those fights didn't prove anything! Picking on normal, non-super-strength people was no challenge for me, just like giant James-Hulk will have no trouble crushing tiny little us with his foot. A real tough person is someone who stands up for others, who gives it their all even when it seems there's no way they can win. That's what I tried to do in this fight against James-Hulk. I tried to protect Liberty, but I wasn't tough enough. If only I had a little more energy. Even if it was just enough to push Liberty out of the way. I would sacrifice myself to save her. If only….

I feel something heavy bonk against my head and shut my eyes for the end, like a coward. Then the pressure on my head retreats, and instead, the object falls into my hand. A sudden burst of energy courses through me, like I just had a Red Bull. I raise my hand just as James-Hulk lowers his foot, and suddenly James-Hulk's foot retreats! I stare in wonder as James-Hulk hops up and down on one foot as though I just stubbed his toe! But what object could possibly stub a toe the size of a car?!

I look down at my hand in wonder, and there, gleaming brightly, is my dad's hammer! For a moment, I wonder if I'm actually dead. After all, my dad is on Asgard. There's no way his hammer just flew all the way across the galaxy because I needed it, right?

"You called Mjolnir to you!" Liberty exclaims, looking impressed. "I don't believe it!"

That's all the proof I need. "HELL YEAH I DID!" I cheer, raising the hammer in the air and taking a few test-swings. Although dad offered to let me use Mjolnir as soon as I turned eighteen, it rarely deemed me worthy before. "I swear this thing's giving me more power," I announce, getting a second wind. "It's like I drank twenty Red-Bulls!" I say, swinging the hammer around to let off some pent up energy. "Red Bull gives you wings – AAAAAAAAH!" I yell, as I suddenly launch myself into the sky. "HOLY SHIT! I FORGOT I CAN ACTUALLY FLY WITH THIS THING!" I yell, as I continue to spin the hammer around like a propeller, launching me ever higher into the sky!

"AAAAAAAAH!" I yell as I realize how high up I am! Then I realize I can just stop spinning my arm to stop going higher. I breathe a sigh of relief… until I realize just how far I have to fall! I try to spin Mjolnir again for a gentle landing, but my arm is tired, and when I think about it, I realize I have no clue how to spin the hammer in a propeller-like circle like that again! "AAAAAAAAAH!" I yell as I fall faster and faster! Yet before I know it, something soft cushions my fall. Something soft… AND GREEN?!

"AAAAAAAAAH!" I yell again, as James-Hulk roars and tries to pick me out of his hair! I sprint back and forth, trying to avoid his claw-like fingers as he combs them through his hair. It's a good thing James-Hulk's fire powers seem to have worn off, or I would be in a lot more pain. Suddenly, James-Hulk's head jerks back, causing me to lose my footing and almost fall off his head! I look down and realize that Green Girl is still fighting him, despite her many cuts and bruises. "ATTA GIRL!" I yell, then grab on to James-Hulk's hair tightly as Green Girl punches him again.

James-Hulk stops trying to catch me and instead uses his hands to punch Green Girl, perceiving her to be the bigger threat. Meanwhile, I cling to James-Hulk's hair like a bucking bronco in a rodeo, barely able to keep one hand on his hair and the other on my hammer.

My hammer! Duh! I smirk as I realize James-Hulk has underestimated me. "IF YOU THINK GREEN GIRL IS THE BIGGER THREAT, YOU'RE IN FOR A SHOCKER!" I yell, raising Mjolnir and bringing lightning down right on top of him! The lightning doesn't hurt me of course, since it's my own powers, but it leaves a wicked gash on James-Hulk's head!

James Hulk roars, his attention turned back towards me as he tries once again to grab me out of his hair. "THIS IS FOR MY GIRLFRIEND!" I yell, smashing my hammer down on his fingers. It's the perfect timing, because just as I smash, Green Girl barrels into him since he is no longer guarding himself with his arms.

James-Hulk makes a horrible screeching sound, then starts to shrink! I cling fast to his hair, but soon his hair is too small for me to keep a grip on, and I fall off his head! "AAAAAAAAAAH!" I yell, once again trying to remember how to spin my hammer to keep me from falling too quickly.

Fortunately, it seems I don't need to. "Gotchya," Joe says, grabbing hold of me and using his grappling hook to bring us safely to the ground. I grin as I realize the amazing turnaround we've made in the fight. I can't believe I just called lightning down three times and still have so much energy! I should have made an effort to be worthy years ago!

My confidence fades a bit when I realize everyone else looks nervous. I look back to the source of their nervousness: James-Hulk, and realize that he is shrinking all the way to his ant size. "Stand back!" Laura yells. "We may not be able to see him, but if we walk away, there's no way he'll be able to catch up to us when he's that tiny!

"He has my super-speed," Liberty says, sounding defeated.

"Well, um…." Laura trails off, not sure what to say.

Suddenly, James-Hulk becomes visible again, growing to human-size and then continuing to grow! Yet before he can reach his city-smashing giant form, a shudder runs through him, causing him to twitch briefly before shrinking again. This time, he only briefly shrinks so much that we lose sight of him, before growing once again. This strange cycle of growing and shrinking continues, until finally James-Hulk remains a normal Hulk size, just slightly larger than a normal human. Then his green skin fades, and James collapses to the ground!

Everyone stands back, not sure if James will wake up soon, or what sort of mood he'll be in when he does. Everyone except Green Girl, that is! Green Girl roars, charging towards the now unprotected James!

"YO! BACK OFF!" I yell, jumping in front of Green Girl and bonking her with my hammer, causing Green Girl to turn her rage on me. I don't like protecting an asshole like James, but, like I said, it's not fair to start a fight with someone when there's no way they can win.

Suddenly, James opens his eyes! "What happened?" he moans, sounding exhausted. "And where am I?" he asks, raising his head to look around slightly, wincing as he does so.

"RAAAAAAWR!" Green Girl roars, trying to push past me to get to James.

"AAAAAAAH! DON'T HURT ME!" James yells, sickly green sparks shooting off him as he says so.

"YOU DESERVE TO HURT, AFTER KILLING MY FATHER!" Liberty yells.

"WHAT?!" James yells. He takes a closer look at us, the sparks fading from his body as he does so. "You mean I fought you?" he whispers. "Guys! I'm so sorry!" he exclaims, trailing off into a coughing fit.

James isn't the only one to be surprised. Laura, Joe, and Noah stare at Liberty in horror, and I realize they hadn't yet heard the news about Captain America dying. I stare in horror too at the look of hatred in Liberty's eyes. I get so distracted that Green Girl is able to get past me and charge at James! She reaches James just as he starts to cry. But instead of hurting James, she just slows to a stop and stares at him as he continues to cry. Then Green Girl does the most amazing thing: she brushes a tear off his cheek!

James and Green Girl just stare at each other for a moment, then Green Girl starts to shrink. She turns back into Anne, then collapses to the ground, exhausted.

Suddenly, James starts coughing again. Water pours out of his mouth… and his hands… and his feet! "I don't feel so good," he gurgles.

"No, really? I never would have guessed," Laura quips.

"THIS IS NOT THE TIME FOR JOKES!" Liberty yells, and I know why. I lock eyes with Liberty as we realize that James may be about to explode!

Our fear is punctuated by the sound of a helicopter. Someone jumps out of the copter, this time with a parachute. Soon, Agent Coulson joins us on the ground. "Jane finished reading the Project Omni report," he announces. "and James is currently in danger of exploding! We need to get him out of the city, NOW!" he yells, gesturing to the helicopter as a means of doing so.

"WHAT?!" James and Joe yell, or in James's case, gurgle. "THERE'S GOT TO BE SOME WAY TO STOP THAT!" Joe exclaims.

Coulson shakes his head. "I'm sorry, but the only way to do that would be to give James a smaller dosage of the same powers in the next ten minutes, and it would take longer than that to extract all of those powers and give them to him."

"What if the powers are already ready?" James asks, now growing green, lightning-shaped chicken pox all over. "Doctor Kraus spends all day in his stupid lab, he's got to have made some extras!"

"NOT A CHANCE ARE WE TRUSTING YOU!" Liberty snaps.

"Actually, I was holed up in that lab for quite some time," Joe interrupts. "Doctor Kraus DID spend a lot of time mixing strange chemicals, and the lab is close by! We need to do this!" Joe exclaims.

Coulson nods. "Ok."

And with that, the race to save James's life begins!


	31. How to Save a Life

**How to Save a Life**

 **Joe's POV**

I sprint across the buildings, my feet barely touching the ground before I fling myself towards the next building on my grappling hook. James may have done some shit, but he's my brother. There's no way I'm letting him die!

"Slow down!" Laura yells, as she teleports to the rooftop I'm on just as I swing off of it. "There could be Hydra Agents at the lab. You don't want to arrive there alone."

"THEN SPEED UP!" I yell. I feel bad for yelling at Laura, but I have to save my brother! He just made a stupid mistake, that's all! Or is it? Liberty shouted something earlier about him killing Captain America. Could that be true? After all, Cap is, like, the best hero in the world! He couldn't really be dead, could he?

I look down on the ground at Liberty, who is lagging further behind than Sam, despite her super speed. Normally, Noah would be in the back, but he stayed behind with Coulson to look after Anne, since his broken suit means he can't fight very well, leaving Liberty the furthest behind. I can't help wondering if she's lagging because she doesn't want to save my brother. Man, when did I start having such depressing thoughts? And when did Laura become our new team leader? In the last fight, Liberty just stood around crying, so Laura ended up calling the shots. She must be having a hard time right now, trying to lead for the first time. I feel even worse for yelling at her.

"Laura, I'm sorry for yelling at you," I say, about ready to cry as I realize she has taken my advice to speed up and is now right next to me.

"It's ok," Laura soothes. "I know you must be going through a lot with your brother and all."

"Yeah, but that's not an excuse to be mean to you," I murmur. I can't believe I was yelling at my beautiful girlfriend, can't believe I didn't notice James was the Hooded Villain, and now, if I screw things up, they could both die! Like, what is wrong with me?!

Just then, the building that contains Dr. Kraus's lab in the basement looms in front of me. "We're here!" I announce, using my grappling hook to slowly descend to street-level by dropping, then re-latching onto the building about once every five floors. "The lab is in the basement," I announce, once everyone has reached the street.

"Then let's do this!" Laura, who teleported down to the street announces. Sam and Liberty nod, and the four of us enter the building.

I look around quickly as soon as we enter, but the only thing in the lobby is the debris from Loki's attack on New York all those years ago, and it has remained undisturbed. I make a _Come here_ gesture to my teammates as I run towards the stairs to the basement. I charge down the steps two at a time, knowing there is no time to waste! My teammates are close behind me as I plunge down the stairs towards the doorway to the dark basement lab. Suddenly, the door opens and light spills out into the hallway, illuminating the angry figure of Doctor Kraus!

"WHAT DO YOU WANT?!" he yells. "IS IT NOT BAD ENOUGH THAT MY EXPERIMENT HAS FAILED?!"

"HE'S NOT YOUR EXPERIMENT, HE'S MY BROTHER!" I roar, tackling the scientist without caring about my own safety. "AND THANKS TO YOU, HE MIGHT DIE!"

"I know, and I am sorry," the elderly scientist says, surprisingly not fighting back. "I never wanted for this to happen. All I wanted was to mix chemicals in peace, and try to come up with new compounds that would change the world. Unfortunately, Hydra expects results, and since I had not synthesized any helpful chemicals as of late, Hydra expected me to take on a more meaningful project. They promised me money beyond my wildest dreams and the praise of Red Skull himself, should I succeed in this project!" Dr. Kraus yells. "If only I had succeeded! If only I had more time! Now I will be fired, there is no doubt about it! To even think about finding a new job at my age! If only—"

"NO ONE CARES ABOUT YOUR SOB STORY!" I yell. "DO YOU HAVE EXTRA POWERS TO SAVE MY BROTHER OR NOT?!"

"Of course I do!" the scientist exclaims, sounding offended. "A good scientist always expects the unexpected to happen, even if the unexpected should happen to be," he sniffs, "FAILURE!" he cries.

"Great, we'll be taking those now," I say, not caring about him losing his job since MY BROTHER IS DYING!

Doctor Kraus looks up and raises an eyebrow. "Really? So you know what they look like?"

I open my mouth to reply, before realizing that I don't, in fact, know what chemicals mixed with superpowers look like. I turn around, hoping my teammates might know, but they look just as stumped as I am.

Doctor Kraus shakes his head. "I thought not. You young whippersnappers have no appreciation for learning nowadays! Why, back in MY day, children were actually excited to learn! Why no one values an education anymore—"

"ARE YOU GOING TO TELL US WHERE THEY ARE, OR WILL WE HAVE TO FIGHT YOU?!" I yell.

"No, there will be no need for fighting," Doctor Kraus says, smartly realizing he would lose a fight.

"Good, then—"

"Instead, I will make a deal with you."

Ok, maybe he's not so smart.

"WHY WOULD WE MAKE A DEAL WITH YOU?!" I exclaim.

Doctor Kraus smirks. "I thought you might pay me a visit, so I took the forethought to install poisonous gas in the building's ventilation systems," he says, pulling a gas mask and device with a button on it out of his oversized lab coat pockets. "If you refuse to negotiate with me, it will not end well for you!" he exclaims, his fingers moving closer to the button.

"Fine! We'll negotiate with you!" I exclaim. "What do you want?"

"I will give you the powers James needs if all of you agree not to tell anyone where my lab is. It will be hard enough to escape the wraith of Hydra, I do not wish to deal with S.H.I.E.L.D. as well. Let me escape in peace, and I will not bother you again."

"You better not!" I exclaim. "Fine, we agree to your plan," I say, glancing at my teammates to make sure they agree. Laura and Sam seem ok with it, but Liberty looks like she is about ready to protest. She opens her mouth… but then closes it again.

"A wise choice," Doctor Kraus says, putting the mask and button-device back into his pockets. "I do not wish to see your brother die either, he is still young," Doctor Kraus says sadly, "but I must think of my own safety as well. Come," he says, entering the lab and gesturing for us to follow. "Here are the powers you requested," he says, opening six jars with pills in them and taking one pill out of each.

"Those contain superpowers?!" Liberty says staring at the pills in disbelief. "THEY LOOK LIKE DRUGS! YOU'RE TRYING TO POISON HIM!"

Doctor Kraus chuckles. "What did you expect extracted powers to look like, a magic potion? These are indeed the powers that James requires. Joe can testify to that."

I sigh. "Yeah, I did see James take some of these when I was trapped here. Seems legit," I say, hoping I'm not making a terrible mistake.

Liberty doesn't look convinced, but she doesn't say anything more.

"Now listen carefully," Doctor Kraus says, as he cuts the pills in half, "James will need half of each of these six pills as soon as you can get them to him. Then, in two hours, give him one-fourth of each of the six pills," Doctor Kraus says as he cuts one half of each pill in half again. "After that, he should be fine," Doctor Kraus finishes, putting all of the half pills in one container, one each of the one-forth pills in another container, and handing both containers to me. "Good luck, I do hope he survives," Doctor Kraus says, before walking away and starting to pack up his lab equipment.

"Thank you," I say, because it's the right thing to do. I turn to go, but apparently Liberty has other ideas.

"YOU THINK YOU CAN JUST WALK AWAY FROM ME?! YOU DESTROYED MY FAMILY!" she yells, running towards Doctor Kraus with her super-speed, then using her super-strength to throw him across the room!

"OWW! MY ACHING JOINTS!" Doctor Kraus exclaims, crumpling to the ground. He struggles to get back up, but before he can, Liberty grabs a rope that happens to be nearby and ties Doctor Kraus up with it!

"YOU'RE STAYING HERE!" Liberty yells, "AND TO MAKE SURE YOU DON'T RUN OFF, I'M STAYING HERE TOO!"

"We don't have time for this!" I exclaim. "James is about to explode!"

"AND MY PARENTS ARE DEAD!" Liberty yells.

"You two go!" Sam exclaims. "I'll stay here."

"Are you sure?" I ask.

"Yes," Sam nods.

"Ok," I say, sprinting away to save my brother. I am glad to hear Laura's footsteps behind me as we run up the stairs, glad as we dart across the rooftops side-by-side, despite how rude I was to her, and how generally un-fun I am to be around right now due to worrying about my brother.

Unfortunately, it seems I was right to worry about my brother. I arrive just in time to see him start swelling up and catch on fire, like he's about to explode!

"Eat these!" I yell, holding out the pills towards him, before realizing a problem. If James stays on fire, he'll just burn the pills before he can swallow them!

"Can you stop being on fire?" I ask, but James shakes his head sadly. "NO! I'M NOT GIVING UP!" I yell.

"Me neither," Laura says, suddenly shapeshifting into her Jotun form. I realize with a shock what she is going to do.

"Laura, no! What if that makes things worse?!" I yell.

"We have to try," Laura insists. Then she shoots a blast of ice at my brother!

"Brr!" James says, shivering as his flames temporarily fade. They soon come back though, looking the same as they did before.

"Seems safe to do it," Laura comments.

"Then let's do it!" I exclaim.

Laura nods, this time continuing to shoot ice so that James's fire can't reform. While his fire is down, James eats all six half-pills. All the while, I watch James anxiously to see what will happen.

At first, it seems like nothing has changed. When Laura stops shooting ice at James, his flames immediately return, and he starts swelling up even faster than before! Then I notice his swelling start to slow, then stop, then completely reverse! Soon, even his flames are gone, and James returns to normal! Well, sort of normal. He is shirtless due to his shirt getting destroyed when he Hulked out. I'm glad his girlfriend isn't here, she would likely be gushing over him and annoying me. Somehow, James's pants have managed to stay on though. I'm not sure how, but hey, I'm not complaining!

"We did it!" Laura exclaims, and I smile as I see how happy she is.

"We sure did," I say, giving Laura a hug. "All thanks to your idea to freeze James." My smile grows bigger as I realize we never actually said out loud our plan to freeze James and have him eat the power pills while his flames were out. We just kind of knew what the other was thinking, like a true couple.

Laura blushes. "That was my only good idea though. You had tons of good ideas during the fight, so you're the hero.

James pales when Laura mentions the word fight, so I decide to comment, now that James isn't in danger of exploding. "Yeah, that's right, I'M the hero! I was able to help my team fight you without getting my ass kicked. I was able to get past Dr. Kraus to get your power pills. I saved your life, and don't you forget it! We're the heroes, and you're the sidekick!"

James opens his mouth to respond, but just then, Coulson arrives. "Yes, you two are the heroes for saving the city. And you," he says, pointing at James, "are in a whole lot of trouble."


	32. What it means to be a Hero

**What it means to be a Hero**

 **James's POV**

"SIT YOUR ASS DOWN!" Director Fury yells as soon as I enter the interrogation room. Numbly, I do as he says. If this was another day, and another place, I would roll my eyes, saunter over slowly, and say something funny that my friends and girlfriend would laugh at. But my friends are all gone, my girlfriend too, and today I fucked up, big time.

"You know why you're here," Fury says, slamming a binder full of papers down on the table, "SO TALK! And maybe, your sentence will be a little lighter."

"S-Sentence?" I whisper. How in the world did things go so wrong? All I wanted was to be a hero. For as long as I could remember, my parents said I could be a hero someday, as long as I tried hard enough. I practiced arrow shooting and spy techniques nearly every day until eighth grade. That was when my brother, Joe, started beating me at archery even though he's two years younger than me, and when I decided to quit. After all, practicing was getting to be a drag, since I had basketball practices to go to, and friends to hang out with. I was doing everything I wanted to. Training seemed like a waste of time.

That all changed this year. Normally, I don't think too far ahead. Heck, I don't even know what joke I'm going to say next, I just make it up on the spot! But with all the guidance counselors pestering everyone to apply to colleges early, I started thinking. Sure, right now I have friends, a girlfriend, and a sport I'm good at, but what about the future? College will likely be more of the same, but then what? Will I just have some boring job where I sit in some boring cubicle and only play basketball on the weekend, if at all, since I'll have kids to take care of most of the time? Well that sucks! My parents get to be cool spies, yet I have to be some boring-ass normal person? That's not fair!

Then I saw the ad. I was just playing a video game online, minding my own business, when suddenly, this ad pops up that says _Want superpowers now? Call ###-###-####!_ I was skeptical, of course. I figured it was just a prank, but I called the number anyways, thinking I'd at least get a good laugh out of it. It turns out the ad was legit, and I end up showing up with a bunch of other teens to do this sort of audition for getting superpowers. The scientists decided I would be the best teen to give superpowers to. They looked like normal scientists, they didn't have any Hydra logos on their cloths or anything, so I didn't realize they were working for Hydra. Even after Dr. Kraus explained it a few days later, he didn't say anything about Red Skull or Hydra's past. He made it sound like Hydra is the better option, said S.H.I.E.L.D. knew how to give people powers too, but they were too afraid to, whereas Hydra wanted to give everyone powers, so that everyone could be a hero! That sounded awesome, to have everyone flying around and shooting powers out of their hands, so I kept going to Dr. Kraus even though he asked me to do some questionable things. After all, the ends justify the means, right?

"WELL?! DO YOU HAVE ANYTHING TO SAY FOR YOURSELF?!" Fury roars.

I was so busy thinking about what happened that I haven't said anything yet. I tell Director Fury about the ad, the auditions, Doctor Kraus, and stealing powers from Joe's friends. "I never wanted to hurt anyone!" I insist, once I am finished. "I just wanted to be a hero!"

"Well of course you did!" Fury exclaims. "And so does everyone else! Hydra was obviously lying about giving everyone superpowers, and no, we at S.H.I.E.L.D. don't know how to do that, but let's say they were telling the truth. What do you think would happen if everyone had powers, hmm? If everyone was flying around catching bad guys, who would be teachers? Who would work at the mall, or the grocery store? Who would collect the garbage? I don't think you want a hundred bags of trash on your curb because everyone is too 'important' to collect it!"

"So what? You're saying I should just give up on my dreams and be a trash collector?!" I yell.

"Of course not!" Fury exclaims. "Trash collectors are an important part of our society, but your talents lie elsewhere. While you might not be the greatest archer, you have better spy skills than you give yourself credit for. You managed for half a year as to deceive not only your brother and his friends into thinking the Hooded Teenager was someone else, but also your parents, my two best operatives since Natasha passed – rest in peace – and that's mighty impressive! In case you haven't noticed," Fury says, looking at me like I'm stupid, "I don't have powers, and yet I have become the leader of the largest spy organization in the world due to pure talent! It's not powers that make someone a hero, it's a desire to help people and figuring out how to use your talents to do so. But I'm not as young as I used to be," Fury says, gesturing to a patch of grey hair, "and eventually someone else will have to step up. Coulson has done well in the past, but he's not much younger than I am. What we really need is a young person to lead S.H.I.E.L.D., someone like you!"

"ME?!" I exclaim. "You… you're asking me to lead S.H.I.E.L.D.?!"

Director Fury laughs in my face. "Don't be absurd! You have the spy skills, all right, but you used them for all the wrong reasons, and your personality sucks! Always thinking you're entitled to everything! You'll be lucky to get a short sentence!"

There's that word again: sentence. "What can I do to get a shorter sentence?" I plead.

"Well, for starters, you can tell me about Doctor Kraus's future plans and where his lab is, since you didn't mention that before," Fury says.

I shake my head. "I'm sorry, but I don't know his future plans, and as for his lab, Joe promised him he wouldn't tell anyone where his lab is in exchange for the pills that saved my life."

Director Fury frowns. "I see. We will discuss this again later," he says, hinting at more interrogations to come. "Stand up."

I stand up, and we walk for a while before coming to a superpower-proof jail cell. "Is this really necessary?! I exclaim. "I promise not to hurt anyone. Heck, I don't even have powers anymore!"

"Maybe not," Director Fury admits, "but it looks better on my part not to let the teen who killed Captain America roam freely around the base."

"WHAT?!" I exclaim, standing still in shock. "That isn't… I didn't… THERE'S GOT TO BE SOME MISUNDERSTANDING!" I exclaim. "I DIDN'T… I COULDN'T…!"

"You were in Hulk form at the time, so I don't suppose you'd remember," Director Fury says, "but it happened all the same. It's a shame," he says, closing the door to my jail cell. "With spy skills like yours, you could have been a great Agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. But now, you'll be lucky if anyone ever trusts you again," Fury says, locking the door and walking away.


	33. The Parting of Ways

**The Parting of Ways**

 **Laura's POV**

The funeral is held on a nice, sunny day. In movies, it always rains during a funeral, like Mother Nature is as sad as everyone who cared about the deceased that they are dead, but in real life, that doesn't usually happen. If Sarah was here, it would probably start raining, but Thor and Jane decided she had been traumatized enough by being involved in the beginning of the fight against James, so they let her stay home.

The thirteen of us enter the funeral hall, us six teenagers, and our seven combined parents who are around/alive/not evil, and therefore able to attend. Tony Stark is also here, along with Director Fury, Coulson, Coulson's team, and several other S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, as well as several younger Avengers (like Sam, Wanda, and the like). The public and the media are not allowed in, thankfully, because Liberty looks upset enough as it is.

After paying our respects to the deceased, everyone slowly files out into the room next door, where there is some coffee and water and tissues and tables and chairs for people to sit and talk at. "I am sorry for your loss," Thor says, walking over to Liberty and putting a comforting hand on her shoulder. "He was a warrior worthy of Valhalla, and shall be dearly missed."

"Agreed," Tony says. "I can't believe I once thought my judgement was better than his, so much so that it started a ( _Captain America_ ) _Civil War_! Cap was a way better hero than I could ever be," Tony says sadly. Then he smiles slightly. "You hear that, Capsicle?" he says, turning towards the general direction his body is in. "I said you're the better hero, don't make me repeat myself!" he says, trying to stay cheerful. He sighs. "The truth is, Cap isn't the only one whose fighting skills aren't as they used to be. We've all been aging quite a bit," Tony says, gesturing to his hair, which has some grey areas, the other Avengers nodding their grey-speckled heads in approval. "That is why… well, maybe this isn't the best time."

Bruce shakes his head. "It's as good a time as any." He sighs. "The truth is, us six original Avengers have been planning to retire soon, or at least retire as much as superheroes can anyways. Of course, we would still help out should some huge army of aliens try to enslave the planet or whatnot, but perhaps it is time for a new generation of heroes to fight the day-to-day battle for justice," he says, looking in the direction of us six high schoolers.

Thor nods. "My son, Sam, for one, has fought valiantly as of late, more so than myself, I am afraid. I was on Asgard during the time of the Captain of America's last stand. Full of rage was I, upon having discovered that Loki was yet again posing as the All-Father, the same trick he tried after 'dying' to the dark elves! I managed to contain his magic with the S.H.I.E.L.D. handcuffs of magic containment, then I pounded him with Mjolnir to ensure he would never try such a trick again! So imagine my surprise when my hammer flew away from me and soured into the sky, as though headed for another planet! Yet it was fortunate 'tis so, for when I looked at Loki, slumped on the ground, his face bleeding, I realized I had let my anger get the best of me, and had been unnecessarily rough with my brother. Whoever was holding the hammer was likely to be worthier than I. Little did I know my son Sam was using Mjolnir to protect those he cared about, instead of hurting them, like I have. Though I do not age the way you mortals do," he says, pointing to his lack of grey hair, "I have eight other realms to tend to, and it would make my heart glad to know that my son, Sam, is watching over Midgard while I am away, for he is truly worthy!" he says, clasping Sam on the shoulder proudly.

"Thanks, dad!" Sam beams.

"Anne, I am also proud of you for knowing when to get angry and when to calm down," Bruce says. "It took me many years to fully control my Hulk form, and I started as an adult. You did well," he says, giving Anne a hug.

"T-Thank you," Anne says, looking embarrassed to be at the center of attention.

"Laura, I'm sorry I can't help you learn how to control your powers," my mom speaks up. "I know it hasn't been easy for you living without a dad most of your life only to find out he's a supervillain, but you've done amazingly well. I always worry about you when I hear you've been in a fight, but if being an Avenger is what you want to do, then I'm not going to stand in your way."

"Thank you, mom," I say, giving her a hug.

Then Hawkeye speaks up. "Joe, I am so sorry I your mother and I weren't around to help you and James," he says gravely. "I was so preoccupied with fighting the agents of Hydra all over the world that I didn't pay attention to you kids enough to notice James was becoming one of them! I have failed you as a father," he says, hanging his head.

"It wasn't your fault," Mockingbird says, putting a comforting hand on Hawkeye's shoulder. "We all made mistakes. Well, all except Joe. You have done a better job of looking after your siblings than we have, and your combat skills have improved tremendously as of late as well."

"Yes," Hawkeye agrees. "I never would have thought of using a grappling hook to get around the city faster. I could see you taking my place someday."

"Thank you," Joe whispers, sounding too sad to appreciate the praise. My heart breaks as tears slide down his cheeks. I barely notice as Iron Man praises Noah, because I am trying to think of how to cheer Joe up.

Suddenly, Liberty yells "NO!" and I turn my attention to her. "I'm honored that you want me to be an Avenger, but I just… I just can't!" she exclaims, struggling not to cry. "It was my lack of attention that got my dad killed. I'm just not cut out to be a hero," she sniffles. "I'm sure the five of you will do fine without me, maybe even better!" she sobs, walking away.

"Liberty! You're a great hero!" I exclaim. "You did the best you could. I mean, I was the one who ran out of powers early on in the fight, while you kept going. And none of us knew that a previous Project Omni test subject killed your mom. Like, that had to have been really stressful to find out, and yet you didn't back down from fighting James. That was really brave of you. I'm sorry for calling you grumpy before. Being a leader is hard! I could barely co-lead with Joe for, like, five minutes!"

"I'm sure you'll do fine," Liberty says, giving me a brief smile before walking away.

"LIBS, WAIT! I WILL ALWAYS BE THERE FOR YOU!" Sam exclaims, running after her.

"GO AWAY SAM!" Liberty yells. Then she sighs. "I want to be alone," she whispers, heading back towards the room her father is in.

Sam comes slowly trudging back to us looking miserable, and I can't help but feel bad for him. I hate this! Everyone is miserable, and I don't think anything I say can cheer them up. A wake isn't really the place for jokes, after all, not that I can think of any jokes anyways, since I'm not in the greatest of moods myself. Yet as I see Joe slowly walking away from everyone, I realize there is at least one person I can try to cheer up.

"Hey," I say, walking towards Joe.

"Hey," he replies, turning around to face me. His eyes are red from crying, with dark circles under them like he hasn't gotten much sleep.

"Joe, I want you to know that I'm here for you," I say. "If you ever want to hang out, or talk about your problems, or just talk, I'm here for you, and I always will be."

"How do you do it?" Joe whispers.

"Huh?" I reply.

"How do you deal with your dad being a supervillain?"

I sigh. "Honestly? Not very well. I mostly just try to forget about him. He's on Asgard most of the time, so it's easy enough then. It's only when he comes to Earth that I don't know what to do."

Joe nods. "I wish James was a relative I never met, but he's my brother. He's been in my life since the day I was born, and I can't just forget him," Joe says sadly.

Joe starts walking away, and I feel bad. "Joe…." I say, but I realize there's nothing I can say to cheer him up. So I decide to do something instead. "Joe, wait! I have something for you," I say, randomly turning into my Jotun form and starting to make a flower out of ice. I've been practicing with my ice powers, and have gotten pretty good at using them. Unfortunately, I haven't been practicing making art, and it isn't until I'm halfway done making the flower that I remember that art class at the beginning of the school year where I epically failed at drawing flowers. The flower ends up having two, half-circle shaped leaves, exactly five petals, and basically looks like a kindergarten scribble, now in 3-D! Joe just stares at the flower, his mouth hanging open, and I grimace. "Sorry! Iknowit'slikesouglyIshouldn'thavemadeitandlike—"

"It's beautiful!" Joe exclaims. "I've never seen anyone use superpowers to make art like that. May I?" he asks, reaching for the flower.

"Um, sure," I say, handing him the flower. "You really think it's good?"

Joe smiles. "Of course! It's not as fancy as the Mona Lisa, but it's something only you can make, and that's why I love it, because I love you."

"Aww!" I gush. "I love you too! Let this flower be a symbol that I will always love you and be there for you."

"Thank you," Joe says, wrapping his arms around me for a hug, the flower still in his hand. "I will always love you and be there for you too," he whispers, close enough that I can feel his chest rise and fall. Then I feel something dripping down my back.

"Oh no!" I exclaim, pulling away only to see the flower melting in Joe's hands! In hindsight, making an ice flower indoors with the heat on might not have been the best idea. "I'm so sorry!" I say, realizing that the flower that symbolizes our love has just about melted. "I wasn't thinking about how quickly it would melt when I said it symbolized our love. Here, let me fix it!" I exclaim, trying to add more ice to it, only I add too much, causing the top of the flower to break off and create a slushy mess on the floor.

To my surprise, Joe laughs! "Laura, I don't care about the flower, I care about you. Thank you for trying to cheer me up."

"You're welcome," I reply. Suddenly, I realize that I am still in my Jotun form, and that Joe hugged me anyways. He really does love me no matter what!

Just then, there is an announcement that the funeral procession is about to start, reminding me that our words our false, that no one can always be there for each other, because nothing lasts forever. After all, even Captain America, the greatest superhero of all time couldn't live forever. That's why you have to cherish every moment you have with those you love. Yes, no relationship lasts forever, but as long as they last longer than my ugly, drippy flower, then it is worth it.

 **AN: This isn't the end, there are still one or two more chapters to come.**


	34. Jk! High School Heroes Forever!

**Just Kidding! High School Heroes Forever!**

 **A few weeks later…**

 **Joe's POV**

The warm wind tosses my bangs around as I swing through the city, and I smile. It's been awhile since I've felt this good. After what my brother did, I was sure I would never be happy again. But after Laura tried so hard to cheer me up, I decided to take her advice and try to forget about the problems I can't change. Sure, my brother is still in jail. Sure, my parents will probably still be arguing when I get home, but right now, I'm just enjoying this warm spring breeze, and the Prom that is fast approaching.

What would be the best way to ask Laura to Prom, I wonder? I epically failed at asking her to Homecoming in a cool way, so I've got to make this time better, but how? I remember that time I was thinking of shooting an arrow with a non-pointy heart that says "Prom?" at her, pretending to be Cupid or something, but it still seems too corny. Then again, shooting arrows is totally me, like how making that cool flower out of ice was totally her. Should I go for it?

I glance at my utility belt in hope that I'll find another idea there. With the help of Noah's and my own tech skills, I have gone from being a one-trick wonder with arrows to a fully equipped spy. Besides my grappling hook (when I'm not using it), my utility belt has all sorts of helpful tools, like trackers for putting on villains to find their evil lairs, Illusion-B-Gone, a pair of sunglasses that let people see through any illusion (I tested them on Laura's shadow doppelgangers and was able to tell which one was her, so hopefully it will work on villains), and exploding gum (don't ask, it was Noah's invention. I just make sure to keep it FAR away from my real gum.) I smile as I realize just how many new spy tools I have. With this much tech, I'm practically Iron Man!

"Iron Man? Nah, that utility belt is totally Bat Man!"

I am so startled by the comment that I practically miss the next building! I'm not sure what's weirder, the fact that some teenage girl seems to have overheard my thoughts, or that her voice sounds strangely familiar, and not in a good way….

"You think? I was thinking more Spiderman, with how he's swinging around," a guy says, and I practically fall off the roof of the building when I realize it's Deadpool!

"Nah, that's just one of his tools. His utility belt has a lot more, so Bat Man it is!" I gasp as I look down and see the speaker is Hysteria, the teenage girl supervillain who caused my teammates and I so much trouble… and awkwardness earlier this year. While her main goal is just to steal money, not take over the world or anything major, her superpower of switching people's bodies is quite awkward, and makes it harder to fight her since it's hard to fight with someone else's body and powers. Hysteria being here, and with Deadpool, of all people, makes me worried an evil scheme is about to go down.

"Hey! You guys better not be up to anything!" I yell down at them from the top of the building. "And who is Batman?" I ask, curiosity getting the better of me.

Hysteria giggles. "Of course you wouldn't know. I was talking to the readers, silly!" she says, winking in a random direction.

"HI READERS!" Deadpool yells, waving in the same direction Hysteria was winking in. I look at where they are looking, but I don't see anything. I decide Deadpool's insanity must be spreading and turn to go.

Suddenly, Deadpool yells "HOLLY GUACAMOLE!"

"What?" Hysteria asks, sounding board.

"MY TARGET JUST WENT INTO A TACO BELL! WOOOOOOOO! PARTY TIME!" he yells, pulling a party hat out of nowhere, putting it on his head, and dancing around.

"Oookay…." Hysteria says, sounding confused.

"Not ok, AMAZING!" Deadpool yells. "We can off the guy, and then get some tacos… or even… CHIMICHANGAS!"

A look of realization comes over Hysteria's face, and she rolls her eyes. "You and your chimichangas." An evil grin spreads across her face. "If you want, I could steal the target's credit card and get us a lifetime supply of chimichangas."

"Really?" Hysteria nods. "YOU'RE AMAZING!" Deadpool yells. "BEST DATE EVER!" he exclaims, holding her hand as they walk towards the Taco Bell.

I stand on the rooftop gagging at the thought of Deadpool and Hysteria being a couple. But as they keep walking towards the Taco Bell, I realize they are likely crazy enough to try out their plan. The good news is that they seem to have forgotten all about me, so I quickly send a test to my teammates telling them what's up.

 **Liberty's POV**

I sigh as the sound of my cellphone buzzing interrupts my relaxation. Opening my eyes, I raise my arms out of the hot tub and dry them on the towel next to me before grabbing my cellphone. The text message is from Joe and reads "Hysteria and Deadpool causin' trouble", along with a picture of where he is. I recognize the street, but it's quite a ways away from here. It's close to Sam's house though, so he could make it there in no time, and Noah is picking up robot parts from a warehouse around there, so he will likely be there as well. So do I need to come?

A few weeks ago, I would have said yes. I would have always come to every disturbance, no matter how easy the perpetrator(s) are to beat, because I didn't trust my team to defeat them, and also because I didn't want anyone to think I'm lazy and giving it less than my all.

A few days ago, I would have said no. After my dad died in part because of my stupid mistake, I feared that I would never be able to stop a supervillain again, and I completely stopped fighting. I also cut back on the amount of clubs I am a part of at school, and you know what? After the shock of my dad dying wore off, I actually started to feel happy! Having less responsibilities gives me more time to relax, like I am now, relaxing in a hot tub at Tony Stark's house.

After my dad passed, Tony decided to adopt me, along with Noah and his younger brother, since they had apparently been living on their own. It's a bit weird to be suddenly living with new people, but life can be weird sometimes. Like when Deadpool, a supposed hero, starts causing trouble with a supervillain.

I drum my fingers against the side of the hot tub as I decide if I can be of help in this fight. It would take me at least fifteen minutes to get to the Taco Bell even in one of Tony's fast cars (mine got totaled by James-Hulk), and that's after I get dressed and take the long elevator ride down to the parking garage. By then, the fight will likely be over. I decide to let my teammates handle this one, knowing I can count on them to get the job done.

 **Sam's POV**

I add the last videogame to the pile, then go downstairs to see what snacks we have. Joe and Noah are both coming over later, and I want everything to be awesome! Suddenly, my phone buzzes. I pull it out and see there's a text from Joe. "Hysteria and Deadpool causin' trouble", along with a picture. I look at it and glare as I realize they're at the Taco Bell just down the street! No one messes with my Taco Bell! I change into athletic clothing and grab Mjolnir. Stepping outside, I spin my arm around and fly up into the air! I've been practicing flying, so I look all tough and awesome when I touch down right in front of the doors into Taco Bell and block Hysteria and Deadpool's way!

"Move it, looser!" Hysteria exclaims. Then she recognizes me. "Hey, you're my kidnap bff! Hi kidnap bff! If you don't move, I'll have to switch you and your friend's bodiiiiiiiiies 3" She sing-songs.

"No need, babe, I've got this!" Deadpool exclaims, unsheathing his katanas from his back.

I smirk. "If you think you can stop me, you're in for a shocker!" I yell, raising Mjolnir and shooting Deadpool with lightning.

"Hahaha that tickles!" Deadpool laughs as he gets electrocuted. Oops. I forgot Deadpool has an insane healing factor and can't die or even stay wounded for very long. Maybe this fight won't be so easy.

Just then, an arrow hits Deadpool and ties him up in a net! "Nice Joe!" I say, just in time to see Deadpool's katanas, which are still in his hands, cut through the net! Fortunately, his arms are tied too tightly for him to move them around and make the holes bigger. Unfortunately, the net isn't tight enough around Deadpool's mouth to stop him from talking.

"This reminds me of that one time, in Canada, when I had a bullet stuck in my spleen…."

I groan and cover my ears as Deadpool keeps talking. I almost want to let him out of the net just so he'll go away and shut up! Unfortunately, I'm so busy trying to tune out Deadpool that I don't notice Hysteria sneaking up behind me until it's too late! Suddenly, I feel sleepy and fall over. When I wake up again, I'm in Joe's body!

"Oh yeah! Hysteria one, losers zeroooo!" Hysteria cheers.

Just then, Noah comes flying in wearing his robotic Vector suit and shoots an energy beam at Hysteria, causing her to just stand there and say "Oww!" like a wimp!

"Quick! Shoot a net arrow!" Joe in my body exclaims from across the parking lot. I grab an arrow and stare at it, not sure if it's a net arrow or not, until I see the word _Regular_ written on it. I grab a handful of arrows and pull out the one that says _Net_ on it, then fire it at Hysteria. Unfortunately, since I'm not used to shooting arrows, the arrow I was trying to shoot at her chest ends up barely hitting her shoulder. Fortunately, it doesn't seem to matter, as the net ends up covering her whole body anyways.

"Nice!" Joe exclaims, and I smile. It's nice to win fights easily, unlike the fight against James-Hulk. I clench my fists as I think about how sad Liberty has been lately after her dad died, and how angry she was that day. While Joe and Laura left Dr. Kraus's lab to get the power pills to James, I stayed behind with Liberty to make sure she wouldn't do anything stupid. Normally, I'm the one doing stupid stuff, but I saw the look in Liberty's eyes, the same look I get when I want to punch the crap out of something, and I didn't want her to punch Dr. Kraus too hard and kill him or something. It turned out that while Dr. Kraus is a wimp, he's really smart. He pulled the red button out of his lab coat and reminded us that he could poison us at any time, and that Joe's promise not to interfere with his escape goes for all of us. Reluctantly, the two of us left. So I'm glad that this fight, it's Hysteria and Deadpool who can't do shit!

"Noooooooooooo!" Deadpool whines. "I missed the target and didn't get a single chimichaaaaaaaaaaangaaaaaaaaaaaaa!"

"WILL YOU SHUT UP ABOUT YOUR STUPID CHIMICHANGAS?!" Hysteria yells. "I swear, you love them more than me!" she pouts.

"Of course I love chimichangas!" Deadpool exclaims. "Chimi-chimi-chan-GAS! Chimi-chimi-chan-GAS!" Then his eyes widen… er… the eyepiece of his mask widens? I don't know how he's doing that. "Wait, do you mean… I meant for food!" Deadpool exclaims, "but as far as girls go, you have some nice b—"

"THAT'S IT! OUR RELATIONSHIP IS OVER!" Hysteria yells. "I DON'T WANT TO SEE OR HEAR FROM YOU AGAIN!"

"Aww," Deadpool says, sounding hurt, so hurt that he actually stops talking… for a grand total of two seconds. "Funny thing though, I can't go away because we're tied up next to each other, and since we're going to be here for a while, we might as well talk, right? So there was this one time, when I shot Wolverine from across the bar—"

"OMG SHUT UUUUUUUUUUUUUP!" Hysteria yells.

Just then, a S.H.I.E.L.D. helicopter touches down in the parking lot, scaring off the few Taco Bell customers that remained. "Thank you for notifying me of this disturbance," a man says to me as he walks out of the helicopter. I am confused, until I realize Joe must have called S.H.I.E.L.D. and I'm in Joe's body. "We have been trying to catch this juvenile delinquent for a long time," he says, pointing towards Hysteria.

"Yes! Good! Take me away! Far away from Deadpool!" Hysteria exclaims.

"And Deadpool," the agent says, turning his attention to Deadpool, "I believe your orders were to get rid of the enemy WITHOUT causing a commotion, am I right?"

"AHAHAHAHAHA!" Deadpool laughs. When the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent doesn't join in, he gasps. "Wait, you were serious?!"

"Yes," the agent replies, frowning disapprovingly.

"AHAHAHAHAHA!" Deadpool laughs again. "You must be new to S.H.I.E.L.D. Everyone knows causing a commotion is what I do best!"

"Ugh," the S.H.I.E.L.D. agent says, rubbing his eyebrows like he has a headache. Just then, more S.H.I.E.L.D. agents come out of the aircraft and start carrying the still-tied-up Deadpool and Hysteria inside.

"No, it's fine," Deadpool randomly says. "I still have the escape device, so I can escape at any time!" Then he notices that everyone is staring at him. "Whoops, did I say that out loud? I was talking to the voices. I obviously don't have an escape device," he says, not convincing anyone.

"I DEMAND TO BE PUT ON A DIFFERENT HELLICOPTER THAN HIM!" Hysteria wails.

"And I demand you switch our bodies back!" Joe in my body yells.

"It'll wear off on its own!" Hysteria yells grumpily just as the door to the helicopter closes and they take off. Sure enough, the helicopter is barely out of sight when Joe and I switch back to our own bodies. I smile, glad that annoyance is over.

 **Noah's POV**

"Since we're all here, you wanna just come over my house now?" Sam asks.

"Sure," Joe replies. "It'll take a few to get there with my grappling hook though.

"I can drive us there if you want," I say after a pause. I'm still not used to having my own car, well, a car that Mr. Stark let me borrow anyways.

"Sure thing!" Joe says at the same time as Sam says "Yeah!"

"It might be a bit cramped though, since I have robot parts in the back seat," I warn.

"Ooh, now I definitely want to ride with you!" Joe exclaims. "Dibs on the back!"

"Shotgun!" Sam replies, opening the front door to my car since we have just reached it.

We arrive at Sam's house quickly, since it's just one street over. I lock the car just as Sarah runs outside yelling "Look what I can do!" Suddenly, a large gust of wind springs up, knocking me backwards into the car! "Whoopsies, that was strong!" Sarah exclaims, as the three of us stare at her.

"Ah! I see your friends have arrived!" Thor says to Sam as he steps outside along with Jane. "It is nice to see you again!" he says, giving Joe and I bone-crushing handshakes.

"Dad! Why do you have to be so formal? You see them, like, every day!" Sam yells. Just as he finishes talking, Mjolnir falls out of his hand and lands on the ground with a _Thunk_!

"It is not polite to yell at your elders," Thor scolds. "Although the timing is well. We are just about to journey to Asgard, and I am in need of Mjolnir" Thor says, picking up the hammer with ease."

"I get to see gram-gram!" Sarah says excitedly.

"Yes, you get to see grandma," Jane replies.

"Fare thee well!" Thor says, as the sky starts glowing above the three of them. "And have fun!"

"Stay safe!" Jane adds, just as a large burst of light envelopes them. When I am no longer blinded by the light, I see they are gone! Only a smoking design left in the grass shows where they used to be.

"Whoa! What was that?" I ask, curious as to what science or magic I just saw.

"Oh that? That's the Bifrost. It teleports people into space or something," Sam grumbles, still angry at his dad and/or Mjolnir.

"I wish I knew how it worked," I say wistfully.

"Me too!" Joe exclaims.

"Well I'd rather play videogames!" Sam exclaims, heading inside. As Joe and I follow him, I wonder if I made a mistake in coming here. Joe has been friends with Sam a lot longer than with me, and while Joe and I both like tech, I don't have much in common with Sam. What if we just end up arguing all day? After all, 'Two's company, three's a crowd', so the saying goes.

Thankfully, things end up going well. As soon as Sam boots up his X-Box, we instantly become friends. He beats me at almost every game, but I don't care, because video games are fun! I haven't had much time to play video games since I've been so busy with school and work these past few years. I'm glad that Mr. Stark adopted my brother and I, and that I don't have to spend all my spare time working anymore. Still, I can't help feeling guilty. He has done so much for me, and all I can do for him is try not to be an annoying house guest, because that's all I am. Still, I'm not alone. Liberty is also getting used to living in Stark Tower. She seemed sad for a while, but got happier this past week or so. I guess I'll get used to things eventually as well. For now, I'm just enjoying these fun videogames.

 **Anne's POV**

A drop of paint falls from my brush like a tear and I quickly dab it away before it can smear the painting. I sigh as I realize this is how I've spent a lot of my time: staying calm, attempting to make beautiful paintings, but being alone.

Then my phone buzzes, and I smile as I realize I won't be alone for much longer. _Come in :)_ I text Laura back, moving my painting to the corner of the room to dry. I soon hear Laura's feet coming up the stairs, but then the footsteps stop. Suddenly, Laura bursts into my room and yells "HIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIYAH!"

A few weeks ago, I would have frozen in terror, frantically trying to keep my heart rate down, but today, I just smile. After all, if I could manage to de-Hulk when James, a supervillain who I hated, surrendered, there's no way I would hurt my best friend. In fact, I've been getting gradually braver these past few weeks, so much so, that I finally worked up the courage to say hi to a cute guy in my class. AND HE SAID HI BACK! Laura laughed a bit when I told her how much his "Hi" meant to me, but it was a good natured laugh from a friend who knows what it's like to have a crush on someone.

"What's up?" I ask Laura.

"SUPER RASENGAN DOPPLEGANGER SAGE MODE ACTIVATE! It's time for _Naruto_!" Laura yells, pulling a _Naruto_ DVD out from behind her back as though it were some ninja weapon.

"I suppose…." I say, having a feeling I won't like watching strange, Japanese cartoons. Still, dad always says I need to get out more and try new things, and since trying new things has been going well for me lately, I decide to give it a try.

I end up being glad I did. While I'm not as into anime as Laura is, it's an interesting way to spend some time. I wouldn't mind watching another episode, but just then, Laura and I both get a text at exactly the same time.

"Uh oh! That can't be good," Laura says, pulling out her cellphone.

"Yeah," I agree, pulling out my cellphone as well. I got a text from Joe earlier that Hysteria and Deadpool were up to no good, but because they were all the way on the other side of the city and my Hulk powers wouldn't help the situation anyways, I decided not to come. Now what trouble is there?

Sure enough, as I look at the text, I see it is from Director Fury and forwarded to all of us High School Heroes and our Avenger parents. The message says _Meeting at S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ. NOW!_

"Anne? Laura? Did you get the text?" my dad asks.

"Yes, dad, we're getting ready," I reply, wondering just what kind of trouble I have to prepare for.

 **Laura's POV**

"Good, you're here," Director Fury says as Anne, Bruce, and I enter the room. Everyone else is already here, since Bruce's house is the furthest away from S.H.I.E.L.D. HQ. "I know you older Avengers requested a cutback on the missions, but I think you'll want to hear this. Our spies recently intercepted some info from Hydra. It seems the reason they started up Project Omni again was an attempt to increase Red Skull's power. If the test subject, James, was able to remain in stable condition while acquiring six powers, they would have given more powers to Red Skull himself. Since the experiment failed, however, this has not happened, and Red Skull is very displeased."

"That's not the reason I called you here though. That would be this," Fury says, pulling up a video on an overhead projector. At first, all I see are customers doing business at a bank. Suddenly, the doors into the bank are thrown open so hard they slam against the walls, and some guy who is obviously a supervillain walks in! The top half of his outfit is a puke-green, skin-tight athletic shirt with the letters "D" "P" on it. Technically, the shirt is lime green, but supervillains don't deserve nice-sounding colors, so puke green it is! The bottom half of his outfit consists of dark grey boots and pants (which thankfully aren't skin-tight), the same greyish color as the tops of the boring lab tables in my stupid science class. What's really interesting though is that he is wearing a gas mask, which is the same greyish color as his boots, except for the lenses of the goggles which are the puke-green color. Now, why would he wear a gas mask instead of the regular cloth kind?

My question is soon answered. "I REQUIRE FUNDS FOR MY LASTEST PROJECT! YOU HAVE THREE SECONDS TO GIVE THEM TO ME!" The supervillain yells.

"I'm sorry, you can't take out a loan unless you have an account with us," the teller replies nervously as her coworker dials 911.

"YOU HAD YOUR CHANCE!" the supervillain yells. Suddenly, green smoke starts coming out of his hands! As it reaches the bank teller, she starts coughing, then she clutches her throat, then she falls over! A few seconds later, the same thing happens to her coworker who was trying to dial 911! Before long, everyone in the bank is passed out on the floor!

"Hahaha, you are no match for Doctor Poison!" The supervillain exclaims. Then he gets to work. The only sound now is the supervillain dragging large bags of money across the floor, and faintly, a voice on the telephone saying "911, what's your emergency?" as the phone dangles from the desk above the unconscious bank teller.

Director Fury shuts the video off and turns to us. "This security camera footage is from yesterday. Now, what did you notice about this so-called 'Doctor Poison'?"

"Notice? What do you mean?" I exclaim. "His supervillain name is soooooooo original! He's obviously not anyone we know, like, say, Doctor Kraus!" I tease. When everyone just stares at me without laughing, I sigh. "Just kid-ding! It's obviously Doctor Kraus. He may have had to take a lot of classes to become a doctor, but apparently 'Intro to being a Supervillain' wasn't one of them, because he forgot to change his voice! Like, I can see why supervillains like Doctor Doom speak so weirdly now, it's so people don't recognize them. Doctor Kraus may have an ok-ish costume, but when he talks the same as always, it's easy to recognize him."

Director Fury nods. "I suspected it might be him due to how you all described him. It would also explain the powers," Fury says, glaring at the image of Doctor Poison that is still paused on the projector. "He must have given himself poison powers using the Project Omni formula. After all James didn't experience problems until he had multiple powers, so this Doctor Kraus guy would be safe with just one."

"So much for 'I just want to run away and keep a low profile'," Joe mutters darkly.

"THAT DOES IT!" Liberty exclaims. "SINCE DOCTOR KRAUS DIDN'T KEEP HIS WORD, I'M TELLING YOU WHERE HIS LAB IS!"

"I thank you for your eagerness, but that information was already divulged by James," Fury says, the room instantly falling into silence at the mention of James. "We searched the building, but there was no lab equipment left or anything else to signal Doctor Kraus has been there lately. No, your goal is to find Doctor Kraus and stop him. Since this is likely to be emotional for you all, I believe it is best to let your parents help you with the mission." Everyone nods, Hawkeye and Mockingbird moving closer to Joe as though to protect him.

I sigh as I add _Find Doctor Kraus_ to my mental list of things I have to do. It's quite a long list. Prom is coming up soon, and I still need to find a dress. Then there's that interview next week about us "New Teenage Avengers" that will be aired live on the news, so I definitely need to prepare for that! I have plenty of homework, as usual, plus I need to take my driver's test soon since I finally drove fifty hours with my mom's supervision. And, most importantly of all, I need to think of some new prank ideas, and fast! Everyone is likely to be down in the dumps from having to deal with Doctor Kraus again, and that's where I come in. I may not be an artist like Anne, or a tech wiz like Noah, or even a well-trained superhero like Liberty, but I am good at one thing, and that's cheering people up. I like pranking people, and if doing what I love cheers my teammates up, then I'm going to prank them like they've never been pranked before! That, and keep on fighting crime, of course. HIGH SCHOOL HEROES FOREVER!"

 **Author's Note: Despite the chapter title, this is actually the last chapter of the story, and I will not be making another sequel. I enjoyed writing this series, but I've been working on it on-and-off for the past year-and-a-half now and want to move on to something else. Thank you to everyone who** **read and reviewed! I wasn't sure if the original story was good or not at first, and your positive reviews are what inspired me to continue. I hope everyone is having a good start to the school year and/or working at a job that isn't terrible. Uh… Live long and prosper! (Clumsily makes the Star Trek peace sign with fingers because I can't think of a better way to end this story, lolz.)**


End file.
